Substance Abuse In The Black Cat By Edgar Allan Poe

Sanders confesses the problems he and his family had to go through throughout the many years that alcoholism had consumed his father. Not only did the alcohol change his father, but it changed the way their family lived. Sanders’ family, like any family, should be tied together with an infinite rope, yet alcoholism came as a saw into the family, tearing it apart. Sanders tries explaining this problem when asking, “Why our father, so playful and competent and kind when sober, would choose to ruin himself and punish his family, we could not fathom” (Sanders 91). Although Sanders’ father sober, like many others, was “playful” and “kind”, alcoholism transformed him into a different and disastrous person. His family felt punished, as the alcohol was coming between the father and the rest of the family. However, not only was his father slipping away from the family, he was turning into creature different than everyone else. This is clear in Sanders’ essay as he “wakes with a grunt”, “snarls back” and “growls” when communicating with his wife (Sanders 87). Sanders specifically uses these savage words to fully express the way his father was like after drinking. The text infers that Sanders’ father was a different creature because of the inhumane noises coming from him. These noises, along with the feeling of falling apart, are factors proving the negative effect of alcoholism. Sanders’ family is not alone with this. Whenever my father would smoke, it was as if the smoke being blown out of his mouth was a piece of him leaving. This affected my family as we felt as if we didn’t recognize the man that had stepped back inside from smoking his cigarette. Sanders realizes that as alcoholism consumes a person, that person will transform into an indistinguishable character, while also tearing apart a

“Alcohol addiction stunts the spiritual, emotional and mental growth of a person”~Anonymous. Sherman Alexie’s novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, is a book based off the author’s teenage life. The novel is about a poor 14 year old named Junior who faced numerous challenges in his life. Junior has experienced bullying, he was called a traitor for following his dreams, got in a huge fight with his best friend and lost three very important people in his life because of alcohol. Fortunately in the end, Junior got through the pain and lived on but he learned many lessons. One of the lessons Junior learned was that the fall into addiction, in this situation alcohol, leads to a great deal of misery for the individual and those

Randomly, people will turn their drinking habits into a reason why to drink. Whether they drink to just have fun, to release some stress, or because they drink to help with various sorts of problems. Often, the alcoholic in the family starts drinking too much, causing the family to always be on edge and be cautious with his mood swings, because they never know how they’ll end up acting. Often in times a sign of abuse on alcohol is when ¨Legal problems, such as being arrested or harming someone else while drunk¨ said researchers in Talbott Recovery. Once the alcoholic figures what kind of power they have over the family, they’ll often tend to use it in a more manipulative way, to make sure they get what they want in the end of the day. And when they’re drunk, they could care less about the family and just desire to get another bottle, and to let their emotions/actions lash out. That is when a person ends up becoming an

What is alcoholism and how does it severely affect people? It is a chronic condition characterized by uncontrolled drinking and preoccupation with alcohol. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s father Rex, is an alcoholic. We assume he enjoys drinking when on page nine, Jeannette recalls her father smelling of whiskey. “As he held me close, I breathed in his familiar smell of Vitalis, whiskey, and cigarette smoke. It reminded me of home.” While it is concerning that young Jeannette knows what whiskey smells like, it is not concerning enough until page fourteen, paragraph six. “In my mind, Dad was perfect, although he did have what Mom called a little bit of a drinking situation. There was what Mom

Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Black Cat,” depicts a male narrator who begins to be malicious due to his ongoing consumption of alcohol which in turn, results in his ultimate demise. In summarization, the narrator commits multiple heinous crimes under the influence of alcohol and that can eventually portray his lost of sanity. Furthermore, by studying Sigmund Freud’s Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis along with Poe’s short story, we can perceive the short story on a psychoanalytical level. Therefore, through the lens of psychoanalysis, it is noticeable that the narrator uses alcohol as a vehicle to represses his emotions, however, it only causes him to be more violent which results in his murders of his beloved cats and wife.

Family members, classmates, depression and disasters influenced Poe to use alcohol. The possibilities of Poe been an alcoholic increased

Alcohol addiction is a major problem in the lives of many, it takes a toll on those with the addiction including their friends and family. In the non fiction novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Jake Barnes, an expatriate drinker from WWI, goes through a journey when Brett goes through love cycle within his friends. He can't have a relationship with Brett even though he loves her, this is due to his impotence and her unwillingness to give up sex. In the novel The Sun Also Rises there are many historically accurate cases of alcoholism throughout the book such as anger caused by alcohol, escaping from reality, and problems within relationships and friendships. ` In this book Ernest Hemingway uses alcoholism to portray the anger that

Problems with his parents, he would drink. Disagreement with his girlfriend, he would drink. Bad day at work, he would drink. No matter what difficulty he encountered or strain life would throw at him alcohol was always the answer. This, on top of the good times. Favorite sports team won, he would drink. Concert at the coliseum, he would drink. Fishing with friends, he would drink. The problem, he stated, was that his problems only got worse when he drank. So, he figured the answer was to drink more.

The Black Cat is one of Poe’s most memorable stories. The story was first published in 1843, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. This like a study of the psychology of guilt, paired with other works by Poe. “Near the beginning of the tale, the narrator says he would be "mad indeed" if he should expect a reader to believe the story, implying that he has already been accused of madness” (Cleman). Poe is creating a sense of confusion for the readers and making them think more about the story before reading. The story is centered around a black cat and the idea of deterioration of a man. From his prison cell, the narrator is writing the story about his life which is falling apart. He has a love for animals, and for his wife that he married young. One of the things that he takes on as a hobby, is

The protagonist faces an internal conflict of his sanity vs. his alcoholism. The anonymous narrator also is in external conflict with Pluto because the cat symbolizes the struggle the narrator consistently endures in his alcoholism. Initially the narrator was very fond and had an “intensity of gratification” for his cat Pluto, but this could be perceived as the pleasure that alcohol brings when someone has the idea of drinking being “fun”. However, as the narrators’ feelings towards Pluto grow more resentful, and angry that can be attributed to the intense decline of his personality once he starts to become more of an alcoholic. Based on the validity of this assumption, then the central idea directly links to Pluto’s symbolism because the narrator mistreating the cat represents how the narrator is also ill-treating himself with alcohol. Accordingly, the many terrifying deeds the narrator pursued upon Pluto illustrated the insanity that has been induced on the narrator due to the ill-effects of his alcoholism.

The events that unfolded in Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The black Cat,” are all due to one person, the narrator. It is because of his Mental state, being an alcoholic, and being abusive to his wife and pets that the fault lies heavily on the narrator. What this paper will entail is all three of the reasons why it is the narrator's fault for what happens in the story and it will come to a conclusion based off the findings in the story.

Alcohol can increase or bring out the anger that a person has, it can influence them to do things that they would not do in a everyday scenario and cause them to lash out instead of dealing with the situation rationally. At alchoholism.about.com they say "Alcohol intoxication brings out people's natural tendencies in the expression of anger" saying that maybe for our narrator even though he was a kind hearted person he may have had anger that he let out while drinking, connecting him symptoms of drug abuse. When he begins to drink in the story he starts to take out some of his anger on his pets, but never Pluto, his cat. As his drug abuse with alcohol worsens he completely stops caring and feeling remorse, tearing out the eye of his best friend Pluto. His anger consumes him as he consumes more alcohol and it changes him into a violent person.

He claims that he hung the cat because it loved him, and because it did not do anything to deserve the punishment. Because of this, the sin that he committed would jeopardize his soul forever. No sane man would do this to an animal that he claimed to love. Again the narrator is not in control of his body and is being controlled by the supernatural and shows signs of mental illness.

Towson University should make an effort to reduce theft in regards to food services. Food services loses about 40-50 Chic-fil-A sandwiches per day due to theft (Cubbler, R. 2011). Other stolen items are typically sushi, chicken nuggets, and bottled beverages (Cubbler, R. 2011). Towson University should provide a TU police officer during peak theft times, set up a visible working or dummy security camera in the dining facility, or place a set of lockers outside of the dining facility similar to the ones outside of the Bookstore. Money saved from reducing theft could be used for funding sustainable practices that are sometimes more expensive.

At the beginning of the story, the man was essentially “happy” with his wife and black cat, Pluto. The story is light until the man begins drinking. He has begun to like that the cat did not want to be around him and avoided his presence anymore. This is possibly due to the fact that he is not happy with his drinking. However, one night when he came home and frightened the cat, which