Aleka

Examination Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Though I have many things to be proud of having strengths in on this paper, the things I'm most proud of are my title and introduction and my use of transitions. I got 100% in the heading/title category and for my introduction. I'm very proud of this. I worked very hard on this paper overall and I'm proud of the grade I got on it. In my paper, Mrs. Olson commented a lot on my use of transitions. Things that I need to work on for the next research paper we write would be learning to cite certain things and write a better conclusion. In my paper I used quotes and didn't always cite them. My conclusion was weak because I used opinions in it. Next time I won't do that. I also need to work on using more formal words, like not using so many contractions.

Forever Comes to a Close Wednesday, February 15, 2012

** __Characters__ ** Edgar Allan Poe likes to leave the narrators of his stories unnamed. I read about ten of his short stories and none of them had a named narrator. However, all of the narrators had in common that they were male, probably in their mid- to late-thirties, and had some thing or other wrong with their lives. Some of them had troubles with their love lives and others had troubles that were in their minds. Some were protagonists (the man in //MS. Found in a Bottle// and the one in //Ligeia//), others were antagonists (the men in //The Black Cat// and //The Tell-Tale Heart//), and still others were neither antagonist nor protagonist (the narrator of //The Masque of the Red Death,// who was simply telling the story of Prospero and The Red Death).

**__ Summary __** // The Black Cat: // The story of a man who loves animals, gets involved in the world of alcohol, and loses his mind. // Ligeia: // A man tells of his one true love; a woman named Ligeia. // Eleonora: // A young gentleman loses his young love, and promises to never love again. // Morella: // The story of a man who loses his wife, whom he did not love so much. // The Tell-Tale Heart: // This man really hates the eyes of the old man he lives with. // The Masque of the Red Death: // A prince locks himself and his friends away in a castle, to avoid the Red Death. // The Murders in the Rue Morgue: // A detective helps to solve a murder case. // Berenice: // He will never get over his hatred of the teeth of Berenice. // The Cask of Amontillado: // This man won't stop until he gets his vengeance. // The Pit and the Pendulum: // A man is condemned to death during the Inquisition. // MS. Found in a Bottle: // A man finds himself aboard a strange vessel after a storm. // The Purloined Letter: // A letter has been stolen.

**__ Rating __** My two favorite short stories by Poe are //The Masque of the Red Death// and //Eleonora////.// These are my favorites for various reasons. //The Masque of the Red Death// has been one of my favorites since I first read it freshman year. I love the fact that Mr. Poe went through so much trouble describing each and every one of Prince Prospero's palace rooms, and yet in the end nothing goes well. He tells about how fantastically beautiful the rooms are then goes on to allow no one their life. It just goes to show that nothing can conquer death. Not even beauty. //Eleonora// is another of my favorites for the fact that its ending tells how truly Eleonora loves the narrator.

**__Wiki Reflections__** I think that WikiSpaces is a great way to discuss independent reading. Not only do we get to write about the stories we're reading ourselves, but we also get to read about others' reading and their opinions, and we get to talk to them about it.

[|The Poe Toaster] Tuesday, February 7, 2012 The book I'm reading is, as I've stated previously, a collection of Poe's short stories. I've read five of the stories. These all add up to being 37 pages of the book. //Ligeia, Eleonora, [|Berenice], and Morella// span a majority of these pages, starting on page 155 and going to 182; thus those are the ones that take up most of the reading I've done. //The Masque of the Red Death// is only 6 pages long. However, the print in my book is incredibly small, possibly the smallest writing I've ever encountered in book. When most people overhear someone speaking of Poe, or think of him or his stories in any way, they think of how morbid and depressing his writings are. I, personally, do not find this to be the case; nor am I the only one. For 75 years, from the 1930s until 2009, an unknown person (or, more likely, set of persons) travelled to Poe's gravesite in Baltimore, Maryland, on Poe's birthday. He would pour himself a glassof cognac and toast to the late author. He'd then leave three roses on the tomb and sometimes leave notes (ex. "Edgar, I haven't forgotten you"). He, otherwise known as the Poe Toaster, has not been seen since Poe's birthday in 2009, leading to speculation that the tradition has either stopped, or whoever was doing the deed has become ill or died. The idea of the Poe Toaster is indescribably idolized in Kelly Creagh's 2010 novel //Nevermore// (which you can find oodles and oodles of information about [|here])//,// about two terrifyingly different high school students who get put together for an English project. (I wonder if you can guess which dead American author they do their project on?) The Poe Toaster, a man in the novel by the name of Reynolds (the name of whoever it was Poe was shouting for before his death), helps the two main characters in the novel more than they could ever conceive. It's absolutely transparent that I am not the only person who finds Poe's life and works to be more interesting than depressing. I look forward to seeing if The Poe Toaster and his legacy will be back next year.

The Infinite Mind Friday, January 27, 2012 "I am come of a race noted for vigour of fancy and ardour of passion. Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence--whether all that is profound--does not spring from disease of thought--from //moods// of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. They who dream by day are cognisant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their grey visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in awaking, to find that they have been on the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil." -//Eleonora//, Edgar Allan Poe.

The former paragraph I've written is my favourite, out of everything by Poe I've read, even though //The Masque of the Red Death// happens to be my favourite short story. It speaks of the mind, something I value far more than almost anything else in the world. Without our minds, wewould be nothing at all but empty containers. Our minds make us who we are and give us (well, maybe not //all// of us) a depth that makes us into our fascinating selves. But even more than that, the paragraph says that those who are creative and imaginative beyond their counterparts wants and abilities. I, personally, find myself to be quite a fanciful and visionary person. Many a time in General Business class have I found myself just coming back to my senses after a long trip into my head while Mr. Dobelis lectures us on the current happenings of our textbook. I truly believe that people who use their minds for more than the normal human things all persons use them for are far superior to those who limit their thoughts.

Morbidity in Romanticism Friday, January 20, 2012 Both of the stories //Ligeia// and //Eleonora// by Mr. Edgar Allan Poe could very well be classified as romantic stories. In the former, the unnamed narrator speaks about his love, a woman named Ligeia, of her death, his taking of a new wife Rowena and //her// death, and the reawakening of his Lady Ligeia from the deadened body of Rowena. In the latter of the two shorts there is also an unnamed narrator who tells the tale of his most beloved Eleonora her death at a very young age, before they are even married, his vow to her that he would never love someone as much as he loves her, and his break of that vow. As is most noticeable, the loved ones of the men die in both of the stories. Poe was quite a sad man. In all photos of himself he has very woe-filled eyes and an aura about him that makes him seem like he's never known a happy day in his entire life. Many people believe that this is why he wrote such sad stories and poems, which have been classified both in the Gothic and dark romantic genres. He lost his wife Virginia to an illness. The two were incredibly in love, and this loss somewhat mirrors, in my opinion, the happenings of the story Eleonora. Poe used what he knew about in life, which happened to be quite a bit of sadness, in what he wrote, just like all great authors do.

When the Rest of Heaven was Blue Friday, January 13, 2012 Edgar Allan Poe was born in Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. Poe wrote many short stories and poems over the course of his short life (he died at age 40). Much, or rather most, of his works deal with the concept of death. In //The Masque of the Red Death// (published in 1850), a young prince named Prospero tries to hide himself away from a terrible plague known as the Red Death by locking himself and many noble friends away in a palace. His plans work only for awhile; in the end he and the rest of the revellers are killed by the Red Death. This story is thought to be making the point that, in the end, Death always wins. A myriad of Poe's works are along the same lines as //Masque.// //Tales of Mystery and Imagination// is a collection of Poe's short stories. It includes //The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Ligeia, Eleonora, The Tell-Tale Heart,// and //The Oblong Box.// These are some of Poe's more well-known stories, and as most of the rest of the stories and poems he wrote deal with the idea of death, I assume these, and the others that I've not mentioned, deal with that same thing. I'm looking forward to reading these. I love //The Masque of the Red Death// and all of his poems I've read, "Ulalume," "A Dream Within A Dream," and "Alone," to name a few, and I'm quite certain I'll love these stories just as much.