...Alejandro Almonte Percy Haynes English 201 September 27, 2014 “A Question of Motive in The Tell Tale Heart” Why did the man in The Tell Tale Heart kill the old man? That is the question that Poe asks you to ponder in his story yet he gives us scant clues as to the answer. The motive eludes us even as the murderer is guilted into confessing by his own mind and then goes on to thoroughly detail his gruesome deed. The murderer will be referred to as “he” although his sex is never revealed, he refers to himself as a “madman” within this first person narrative (Shen, 287). This piece is tightly written, short to read and it builds at a frantic and hurried pace and then climaxes abruptly. This leaves the reader craving more details and to wishing confirm the man’s motives. Poe’s story consists of the author’s unique ability to create grotesque inventiveness and superb plot construction (Shen, 275). Some interpret the old man as the father of the murderer and his act a release of built up tension and resentment toward him (DeBord, 1). There appears to be no familial bond in the heart of the man when describing the old man, he also lacks the rage that one would expect if the act were resentment fueled murder. Instead the old man seems to be a fond acquaintance of our murderer, because they reside within the same home it can be hypothesized that one or the other is simply a boarder in the other’s home. There is no malice, no greed and no disdain to motivate him, he even...
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...Example of a Fish Tale: Old Stormalong – A Massachusetts Tall Tale retold by S.E. Schlosser “Now everyone knows that Alfred Bulltop Stormalong was the ultimate sailor. He was the captain of a mighty ship known as the Courser, which was so wide that she couldn't sail into Boston Harbor and so tall that the mast was hinged into the middle so it could be taken down to avoid the sun and the moon whenever they passed by. Her keel was so deep that no harbor in the world could take her, so she spent all her time in deep water. The Courser only went through the English Channel once. It was a tight squeeze, so Old Stormalong had the sailors coat the entire outside of the ship with soap. Even then, Old Stormalong barely slid the boat through, and so much soap scraped off one side of the boat at Dover that the cliffs there became permanently white. After that, the English very politely asked Old Stormalong to go around the long way, and that is what he did. The deck of the Courser was so long that the sailors had to ride horses at a full gallop from stem to stern when it was their turn to keep watch. Old Stormalong was the only man strong enough to handle the wheel of the Courser, and it took all of his muscle to prevent the ship from knocking down the smaller Caribbean islands whenever a hurricane blew into the ship.” A strong imagination is needed to create and write a tall tale. However, most tall tales have a basic structure, such as: 1) a character who is ‘larger-than-life’; 2)...
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...Teacher and Author: Teaching Middle and High School Using Literature Sandra Coleman Grand Canyon University RGD 545 Professor Karen Foster February 27, 2008 Teaching Middle and High School Student Using Literature Outline: I. Short Stories a) Activating Prior Knowledge b) Responding to the Selection c) Short Story Selections 1. Suggested Activities to use with Various Groups II. Oral Tradition Literature – Tall Tales and Folktales a) Analyze characteristics and plots of Folktales and Tall Tales b) Understanding Hyperbole c) Writing a Tall Tale d) Selections of Oral Tradition Literature III. Novel Studies a) Previewing the novel b) Defining and Understanding Elements of c) Character Analysis d) Problems and Solutions of the story IV. Historical Fiction a) Activating background/prior knowledge b) Setting a purpose for reading c) Writing about historical fiction V. Realistic Fiction a) Evaluating Realistic Fiction b) Responding to the selection c) Distinguishing between Fact and Opinion d) Summarizing the Story Chapter 1 – Short Stories: A short story is, like the name...
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..."Poe Literary analysis" In the short story "The Tall-Tale Heart" Edgar Allan Poe shows craziness through the mans actions. The man goes to the old mans house every night for seven nights. He goes there for one reason and that's to get the old mans evil eye. He had nothing wrong with the old man other than he doesn't like his eye. The man goes into his bedroom opens the door to see if the eye is open or not. As Poe says, "And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously--oh, so cautiously--cautiously (for the hinges creaked)--I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye." (Poe). The man does this every night at twelve o clock for seven nights to get the old mans vulture eye. He will sit there watching the old man sleep....
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...compare a written and film version of the Tall Tale Pecos Bill and Sue Foot Sue. The general background information for tall tales is that the length of the story does not matter. It needs a lot of action and exaggeration in it. They were also often written in a certain dialect. A summary of the tall tale I am comparing is Pecos. Bill had a wife named Sue Foot Sue who could ride anything just as well as him. Slue wanted to ride Bill's horse and when she did, the horse bucked and she got thrown to the moon. She bounced up and down for three days and four nights, hitting her head on the moon until Bill had to shoot her to put her out of her misery. The movie version of Pecos Bill is better than the written version because it had a lot more action...
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...Visual 1 This visual message is not clear at all. This visual does not tell a story about the overall pyramid. The sections in the pyramid was properly labeled accordingly. The visual was from a credit source being the United States Department of Agriculture. The visual was designed properly and the colors was used properly. The visual was free of any form of chart junk. The visual was misleading because it did not tell a story about the pyramid. The pyramid just stated food groups and servings but not real overall picture. Visual 2 This visual message was real in this pyramid. The stories in this visual was determined in thorough sentences what occurred in this pyramid. Business Training Center (2013), “When pre-senting important information, a visual – such as a chart or graph – is worth a thousand lines of da-ta”. The sections in the pyramid was properly labeled accordingly. The visual was from a credit source being the United States Department of Agriculture. The visual was designed properly and the colors was used properly throughout he visual. The visual was free of any form of chart junk. This visual was easy for the readier to follow and was well organized. The colors were used great according to the information in the pyramid. This was a well put together visual. Visual 3 This visual message was not clear. The visual did not tell an overall story of the bar chart. This visual could have told more information about malaria mortalities...
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...Tales of Woe, Concord Bookshop Kathleen E. Haertel HCS587 September 23, 2013 Virginia Weatherston Tales of Woe, Concord Bookshop With today’s ever advancing technology, a company needs to have a competitive edge to make a profit, thus making change inevitable. The Concord bookshop was a small New England bookstore that were feeling the financial strains in today’s aggressive market, because of this the owners felt the need to restructure the company for it to remain a viable and profitable company .A new organizational model is necessary for a business to gain profit and survive in the market, Spector (2010) unfortunately there were some areas that were not handled correctly or effectively in the restructuring of the company that led to its failure. The first phase that failed was for the owners to come in and announce that changes were going to happen without notifying the employees of their areas of concern, this was the financial aspect of the company, the managers did state that “things are not so bad.” The owners response was very matter of fact that they wanted to move in another direction. One thing that may have helped in this phase would have been for the owners to have had meetings with the employees and discuss areas that the owners felt needed to be addressed; these long- term employees were blind-sided regarding as to what was to come. The second area of...
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...are: folktales, tall tales, fables, myths, epics/ballads/legends and religious stories. One subcategory that falls under Folklore is Folk tales. A folk tale is a tale or legend originating among a people or folk, especially one forming part of an oral tradition. Folk tales are often part of the oral tradition of a group and are usually told rather than read. They are passed down from one generation to the next. They may be stories that grew out of the lives and imaginations of people. Folk tales can take on the personality of the storyteller and the story can take on the characteristics of the time and place in which the story is told. The themes are universal and timeless and may contain supernatural elements, imaginative characters, focus on action, have a simple sense of justice, have happy endings and contain fundamental wisdom (Chen, 2009). There are seven types of folk tales, each with their own characteristics to set them apart from one another. Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott is a beast tale. It is a beautifully illustrated folk tale from the Ashanti people about a spider “dad” named Anansi. Anansi is threatened by fish and a falcon, but is saved by his sons. He is confused as to which of his sons should get the reward (ball of light) and calls upon the God of All Things. They still can’t decide until the God of All Thing throws the ball of light up in the air for all to see. And according to the folk tale, it is still there...
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...Pourquoi tale: stories from around the world that explain how something came to be Ex: The Lizard's tail, Why the Frog Croaks in Wet Whether, The Gossiping Clams Folktale: traditional fictional stories around the world. Ex: Hansel and Gretel, Godmother Death, Aslaug the Deep Minded, Anansi and the Sky God's stories Legend: stories about people, events, or places that may be based in fact, but are usually fictional Ex: George Washington and the Cherry Tree, King Arthur, St. Brigid's Cloak. Myth: stories about gods, heroes, and creation Ex: The Hungry Goddess, Who is the Greatest Warrior? The Story of Arachne. Hero tale: Myths or folktales that tell of the remarkable deeds of a hero Ex: Perseus and Medusa, The Devil's three Gold Hair....
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...Within English literature there may be no better descriptions of people than in the general prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Every character so perfectly profiled. Much was told about appearance, dress, habits, backgrounds and stories. He distinguishes each character by his/her profession. This makes us curious as to how he would describe many of the modern professions in his same unique manner. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales it will be interesting to include three modern characters, an astronaut, an elected politician, and a computer geek. The astronaut would be a magnificent sight to all who see him. Dressed in glimmering silvery attire the knight had the latest and greatest of everything. His dagger had many sharps edges in a new metallic case. The astronaut’s eyes were bright, full of life, and showed nothing close to a lack of intelligence. He was quiet, never spoke out of turn. Many a mile he had traveled, over land, air, and space. His eyes had gazed at what few others had, the earth….from outer space. He possessed a certain calm about him. He was wise, strong,...
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...Sergeant-Major Morris Sergeant-Major Morris is the catalyst for the story: he brings the monkey’s paw to the Whites’ home. He is “a tall, burly man, beady of eye and rubicund of visage,” whose eyes get brighter after his third glass of whiskey at the Whites’ hearth. Morris is both familiar and exotic. Morris and Mr. White began their lives in approximately the same way; Mr. White remembers his friend as “a slip of a youth in the warehouse.” But in his twenty-one years of travel and soldiering, Morris has seen the world and has brought back tales of “wild scenes and doughty deeds; of wars and plagues and strange peoples.” Morris also carries with him the monkey’s paw, which changes all the Whites’ lives forever. Mr. White Mr. White is a conservative, satisfied man who enjoys his quiet domestic life. Jacobs shows this in the very first scene in the story, which opens with father and son playing chess in their cozy cottage on a rainy night, while Mrs. White, knitting by the fire, comments on their game. Clearly, the Whites live a contented, if somewhat contained, life. Later in the story, the grandest thing Mr. White can think of to wish for is to clear the mortgage on their little house. White does have reckless tendencies, though. In the first paragraph of the story, in the chess game with his son, he puts his king “into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment” from his normally docile wife. This recklessness leads him to tempt fate with the monkey’s...
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...8 SOUTHERN THAILAND FOLK TALES Foreword… It all started a few years ago in a discussion with our English Major Students. We were talking about regional differences; how perceptions of people differ. I explained how people in the north of England view the folks from London and the south, and vice-versa. “It’s the same here in Thailand” one bright student chimed, “the folks in Bangkok and the north think everyone down here in the south are stupid, ignorant and to be viewed with extreme suspicion. But we have a very rich cultural heritage” she went on to explain. “We have history and stories that have been passed from father to son, from mother to daughter, for centuries.” So, it was agreed, the students would mine the Southern Thai Culture for the myths and legends that go to make folk tales. These would be documented and translated into English. This was to be a useful extra-curricular activity in the student’s quest for better English usage and understanding. The project ‘grew like Topsy’ and before long we had plans afoot to publish a small book that could, with a bit of luck, help to narrow the cultural divide between north and south Thailand. And, of course, educate and amuse us poor, ignorant, foreigners! Together with my friend and former colleague, Ajarn Kevin Marshall, we agreed to edit the student’s submissions, bring the often-archaic language up-to-date and inject modern usage and idioms whilst retaining the spirit of the original. It was a big idea but one that...
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...A fairy tale (pronounced /ˈfeəriˌteɪl/) is a type of short story that typically features European folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described)[1] and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending)[2] or "fairy tale romance" (though not all fairy tales end happily). Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any farfetched story or tall tale; it's used especially of any story that not only isn't true, but couldn't possibly be true. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times.[3] Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed...
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...Risk-taking and social mobility in “Jack and the Beanstalk” One of the common themes in most fairy tales is extreme poverty and starvation. This is because these tales were folk traditions told by peasants and poverty was one of the few things that they knew very well. In “Jack and the Beanstalk” poverty is the central theme. Joseph Jacobs and Andrew Lang tell the story of a poverty-stricken boy and his adventure to rise above his childhood poverty and become rich. In both Jacobs and Lang’s version of "Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack is depicted as an ambitious risk-taker and clever boy who steals to overcomes poverty yet the audiences that Jacobs and Lang are writing for is clearly different. Jack takes numerous risks that allow him to get out of poverty in both versions but Jacobs’ version would be much more appealing to peasants while Lang’s version would be more appealing to the middle class who would not favor social mobility of peasants. Jacob’s and Lang’s version of the tale are remarkably similar because they both depict Jack as a risk-taker and resourceful boy who is able to use his cleverness to escape the clutches of poverty. In each tale Jack takes four risks. These risks are selling his cow for magic beans and each of the three times that he goes up the beanstalk to the giant’s/ogre’s castle. The very act of selling the family cow for a few magic beans is an incredibly risky one. This act is risky because the beanstalk has no economic value whatsoever...
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...Name English 101 09 Feb 2014 The Miller’s Tale Geoffrey Chaucer was a deeply religious person that was distressed about the level of corruption in his Church. Unable to come out and attack the erosion of morality and campaign against rampant corruption he put pen to paper. Chaucer used the Canterbury Tales as a way of attacking religious excess and argue that the Church should return to its pious roots. The Canterbury Tales were written from the prospective of a traveling Pilgrim coming across various people in his travels. These encounters are what lead to the tales. A prologue before each story lays out the purpose of the tale and what kind of tale it will be. The more rough and crude tales, such as The Miller’s Tale, are told in front of a raucous crowd that is usually in a pub or bar. These tales are often told to a loud and boisterous crowd and the pub owner often has to defuse tensions. Chaucer paired stories together as either a response to a previous story or an attack on a profession that would be refuted in the following story. The Miller’s Tale was the second tale and was the first story to quite or repay the story teller. It also should be noted that this tale followed a chivalrous and high society tale called The Knight’s Tale. Chaucer purposefully place The Miller’s Tale to occur after the The Knight’s Tale to provide comedic relief and contrast the previous tale. Further, the prologue to The Miller’s Tale sets the stage for the next story when an infuriated...
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