Topic: Do you believe that Soapy would still keep his resolution of change until he was out of the Island ? If not, what do you think of the unfairness of that society in which Soapy lived?

written by Tran Thi Ngoc Thuy

In “The cop and the anthem”, by using ironic structure, O. Henry described a main character-Soapy who tries unsuccessfully six different ways breaking the law to be arrested in the Island-a prison. He just changes his soul after hearing the organ music from the church; however, the cop captures him for doing nothing. It has a surprise ending. Many people doubt that whether Soapy will still keep his determination to change after three months in jail or not. In my point of view, Soapy will still keep his resolution of change until he is out of the island because he has positive thinking and positive attitude as well as realizes the value of a man in life after listening to the anthem.

The first reason Soapy still keep his resolution of change is that he has positive thinking after listening to the organ music. At first, Soapy recalls his good and peaceful memories he had in the past. It is true that people are in the way of positive thought often having a tendency to look back the good things. This is the motive helps people to change in the good direction. For example, Soapy recalls “such things as mothers and roses and ambitions and friends and immaculate thoughts and collars.” We can see the good memories in his head will turn his thoughts towards the more positive. In addition, he also reconsiders his negative thoughts in the past and feels unpleasant about them. “The degraded days, unworthy desires, dead hopes, wrecked faculties and base motives that made up his existence”. He thinks that negative thoughts existed in his mind causes harmful to his life. This proves that his thinking has changed, of course, in the positive trend. Therefore, we must think back our good memories to encourage ourselves as well as the bad ones to change in order to hold the positive thinking.

The positive attitude is the next reason proves that Soapy will still keep his determination to change after three months in jail. The initial attitude is that Soapy has a strong urge to struggle with his internal negative attitude. He realizes that he now has to pull him from the difficult situation which he brings to himself. “He would pull himself out of the mire”. “He would conquer the evil that had taken possession of him”. He perceives that he must battle with his internal evil himself which controls his own life in the bad way. Furthermore, Soapy also looks back his ambitions and is willing to pursue them without hesitation. “He would resurrect his own eager ambitions and pursue them without faltering’. The willingness in his attitude proves that he wants to change his fate in the straight way. Thus, people should try to struggle against the internal negative attitude and fulfill the ambitions immediately in order not to feel regretful later.

The last reason demonstrates Soapy will still keep his resolution of change is that he perceives the value of a man in life. Soapy wants to be a worthy man in the world. “He would make a man of himself again”. He sees that he should not let the negative thoughts control him any more. He thinks he should change to be somebody in the world. These are the witnesses indicate that he has a strong desire to turn himself to a true man in life. Also, Soapy realizes that he has to find work to support for himself. Soapy sees his bright way in the future and feels eager to fulfill. He realizes that he must not lean upon others for living. He must take responsibility for his own life. Therefore, a man should rely on his/her capacity to assert the value of him/her in life.

In general, the story with the surprise ending causes the argument revolves around the main character Soapy. The question is that whether Soapy will keep his determination after three months in the prison or not. The answer can depend on every one. Having positive thinking and positive attitude as well as perceiving the value of man after listening to the anthem are some reasons show that Soapy will still keep his resolution of change until he is out of the island. As human beings, we all have to believe in ourselves. “We should not share our dreams with negative people, nor feed our dreams with negative thoughts”.

Topic: There was another conflict within your group members about the madness/ madnessless of the narrator. Some argued that the narrator was really a mad man, and others denied to state that he was not a mad man due to his perfect plan of killing the old man. What is your stance? Justify it!

Composed by Tran Thi Ngoc Thuy

In “The tell-tale heart”, the narrator- the murderer tells his own story about the action of killing an old man. Through his words as well as his action, some people argue that the narrator is really a mad man, and others deny to state that he is not a mad man. In my point of view, the narrator is not really a mad man because he has a careful as well as patient action of killing the old man and has the feelings or senses about his action.

First of all, the narrator has a careful action of killing the old man that proves that he is not really a mad man. Before murdering the old man, the narrator cares about the process of killing the old man. He tells “with what caution-with what foresight-with what dissimulation I went to work”. This shows how careful he is in carrying out his plan. Also, intentionally, he behaves well towards the old man. Every morning, the narrator often talks gently to the old man to check whether the old man has any doubt about his plan or not. After killing the old man, the narrator is very cautious about his process of hiding the dead body. He works hastily, but in silence so that no neighbor can hear anything. In addition, when the murderer cuts off the corpse and puts it down in the floor, there is not any clue of the deed he has done because “a tub had caught all”. Whether a mad man can do such things cleverly or not. Thus, these actions above make us cannot think that the narrator is really a mad man.

Besides having a careful action, the narrator has a patient deed of murdering the old man that proclaims he is not mad. Every night just at midnight, the narrator always waits persistently to fulfill his plan of killing the old man. He often spends a whole hour at night to see whether the old man sleeps or stays awake. He has done such action during seven long nights. How persistent the narrator is! Furthermore, when the old man springs up in bed and asks, “Who’s there?”, the narrator keeps still and says nothing. He stands silently and patiently in the dark and waits for a long time. It shows that the narrator has great patience in waiting to carry out his plan. Therefore, a mad man will have no enough patience as the narrator has.

The last reason verifies that the narrator is not really a mad man is that he has feelings or senses about his action of killing the old man. The initial feeling we can see clearly about the narrator is that he feels nervous “True!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am” when he retells the story. The next sense came to him is the calm feeling while reporting the story. He tells the readers to observe how healthily and how calmly he has when telling the whole story. What’s more, the narrator hears the sound comes to his ears “a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton”. After the police officers come in the house for searching, the narrator’s head ache and this sound steadily increases within his mind. He perceives that “it grew louder-louder-louder”. If the narrator is a mad man, can such feelings disturb his mind increasingly? It is true that he still has the feelings about his crime and his agony, so he is not really a mad man.

In short, Edgar Allan Poe described a character that causes many arguments such as knowing no name, no sex as well as madness or not. Some people say the narrator is really a mad man, some argue that he is not. Basing on the great care and patience in his action as well as the feelings having about his deed, we can see that the narrator is not really a mad man. Whether a mad man can give us the meaningful story or not? Therefore, we must look at deeply the whole matter to give comment instead of the aspect of it.

Topic: The family life of Rip was described as unhappy family. In your point of view, who is responsible for this terrible situation? Rip or Dame Van Winkle?

By Le Thi Thuy Quynh

It’s not difficult to define how is a happy family? A happy family always has cheerful and warm atmosphere. The parent-child relationship is always in agreement and in respect each other. They must share the responsibility together. However, in short story “Rip Van Winkle”, we are easy to see how pity Rip’s family is? Rip’s family was a messy, unorganized one without the happiness; except the wife’s shriek, the husband’s laziness and the children’s uneducated condition. This terrible situation not only came from Rip but also from his wife, Dame Van Winkle.

The first reason is the lack of the marital sympathy. What is the sympathy? Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings. Rip had time to help other wives in his town and he works for unprofitable purpose, but he didn’t spend his time to notice why Dame behaved like that? Why did she always shriek at him? He didn’t share about the food and clothing problems with his wife. Rip doesn’t sympathize with his wife’s strenuousness. Otherwise, Dame seems to be better than Rip in the family’s care. She works to support for their family. However, in this story, Dame Van Winkle was described as a nasty woman. Morning, noon and night, she clamoured Rip all time. She didn’t know how to sympathize with her husband. She didn’t know how to ask her husband to help her while other wives could beg him for help. She didn’t use a soft voice or sweet words to talk with her husband to encourage him on domestic working as well as their farming work. Dame didn’t spend her time on understanding Rip. How did he need and how was his feeling to guide him on their family organization. Maybe because of her hard tone, Rip became more laziness and irresponsibility. Maybe he feared to face to his wife’s hard words. Obviously, there are no deepest sympathy between Rip and Dame Van Winkle. That explains why they were in the bad condition, unhappy family.

Another reason is the lack of the responsibility. Both Rip and Dame didn’t recognize their responsibility as a wife, a husband and parents in their family. Firstly, Rip was irresponsible to be as a husband. He didn’t do anything to help his wife to earn money to support for their life, even at least helping her in house-working. He spent his idle time to gossip in the inn or do the meaningless thing. He pushed the family burden on his wife’s shoulder without any worry. He didn’t effort to earn money to put their farm in order or in the good condition to help his wife. As a husband position, he didn’t let his wife base herself on his firm shoulder. All responsibility falls on Dame’s shoulder. His selfish lead his family to unhappy one. I could tolerance for his laziness, but I couldn’t stand his irresponsibility as a father. He spent his all time to gossip in the inn without any care about his children. He could teach and play with other children but he didn’t teach his children how to do the best thing; how to be a good person. I could see why Dame treated on Rip like it; because this was out of her suffering. Secondly, Dame was irresponsible to be as a good wife although she took care of their family by herself. As a wife position, she almost forgot her place in the family. She scolded at her husband every time, everywhere. She didn’t know how to keep her husband’s face. She didn’t effort to encourage Rip to work except reprimanding her husband in heated tongue. One more thing, as a mother role, Dame was irresponsible to her children. The way she took care her children to let them be considered as “belong to nobody” is unacceptable. How be ashamed I feel! The lack of responsibility causes Rip’s family into a mess. How unhappy family are!

In short, there are many reasons which lead a family into the unhappy situation. In this story, the lack of marital sympathy as well as irresponsibility is the main reason that causes Rip’s family into the unhappy one. This terrible situation will happen in case one of them doesn’t want to do anything, even a little work. There also exist many situations like this in our modern family now.

Topic: The arguments in your class today were rather unhappy with the ending of the story "The Cop and the Anthem" because O. Henry enclosed it with an unexpected end (Soapy was sentenced to be in the "island" for three months right at the time he awakened himself to be a good person). In your own viewpoint, are you happy with that ending? If not, providing that you have a chance to change the ending of the story, what would the ending be? Don't forget to tell your reasons.

Composed by Nguyen Tri Cao

Many people don’t like the ending of the story of “The Cop and the Anthem” written by O. Henry because of its unexpected sad end. And in my point of view, I am not happy with the ending too. Thus, if I had a chance to change it, I would not let the jury give Soapy three months in prison; I would give him one more chance after his awakening because of three following reasons.

The first reason is that I believe he deserves one more chance to start a new bright future life after awakening. We all know that Soapy was a homeless man and he tried many ways to be put in prison because he simply thought that prison is the best place for a homeless guy like him to go through the coming winter. He intentionally created a crime in order to be caught by the police. He tried 6 times to do what he thought could bring him to the best place for the cold winter. However, all his plans were unsuccessful or ignored. And when he was tired of making plans, finding the ways to be in prison, he heard the Anthem that reminded him many happy things in the past. Thanks to the Anthem, he changed not in his mind but in his soul. It is not easy for us to change something, especially in our soul but he did after all. He realized the beauty of his previous life and what he should do to live better. Everything jumped to his mind as if there was an opened door with many beautiful things. He was then different from the man who had tried to be in jail. He really wanted to change; he wanted to have a job and a happy life. And because of his deeply changing, I believe he deserves to have a chance to change his life.

The second reason is that when we give Soapy a chance, it can affect other men who are in the same situation as him in a good way. If Soapy have had a chance to change, he would have been a good mirror for many people. Other people who were in the same situation might look at Soapy’s changing and be awaken. They might think that if Soapy could change, so did they. Thus, with this way, the number of homeless and jobless people might decrease. And the society would be full of forgiveness and happiness.

The last as well as the least important reason is that I love happy endings. In my opinion, good ending is that it can make readers think. This sad ending is really good when it makes us think much about the fairness in Soapy’s society and his resolution. However, if we have a happy ending, we can make the readers think in a different way, the good way that there is still forgiveness and fairness in our unfair society. The ending can also make people keep hoping and believing in the bright future.

All in all, I will give Soapy a chance to start a new life because of my reasons above. And this is one of the happy endings that I could think of. The ending can strongly affect those who are having troubles in life and looking for the way out.

Write an academic essay, choosing one of the topics below:

1. The old man in the story "A clean well-light place" - Ernest Hemingway, has plenty of money, but he committed suicide. Do you think that money will bring happiness to people?

2. In your point of view, why did the younger waiter said that an hour is more to him than to the old man?

3. What should you do to help old people's lives (in your family) be more meaningful?

Write an academic essay, selecting one of the four topics below.

1. In the story of A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner, "The mayor Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loan money to the town..." in order that Emily did not pay taxes in Jefferson. In your point of view, is it an irresponsible action if someone does not pay taxes to the place where he/she lives?

2. After Emily's father death, she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all. In your viewpoint, why did Emily isolate herself? Is it good to get out of people or friends when you are sad because of losing something?

3. Why did Emily's father drive all the men away from her? Was it good for her?

4. In your life, have you ever done something supposed to be good, but actually not as a result?

Note: In order to perfect your writing, you can get out of the content of the story to relate to your personal experiences.

Compose by Truong Thi Mong Thu - DH06QL2

In our life, there are always two sides existing. These are bright face and dark face and we ourselves wonder that how we can face to face them. Perhaps, bright face is easy for us to see, but dark face is opposite. We usually realize that dark face which existing inside our body was negative aspects. Sometimes, we misunderstand that we think ourselves as kind people, but the plain truth is on the contrary. Above details are proved in the story “The tell-tale heart” which reflects obviously two faces of our life. We can live in the torment and suffer misery when fighting against the court of justice presenting in our soul. To me in the story I never care for whether the man is mad or not, I just want to emphasize that the narrator confesses at the end of the story is meaningful because of people’s spoken words “cause lead to result” and I believe that it is the truth showing in this story and in our life. In fact, after reading this story, it is difficult for me to understand what you think about the man’s confession, but to me the man confesses at the end of the story because of three following reason.

Firstly, in my opinion, the narrator confesses at the end of the story because of his fear. He feels scared by his own serious offense. Maybe he imagines that the old man’s soul will finds out and punishes him. Therefore, he cannot keep calm and loose his mind. We can suppose that the old man’s heart is in the survival, so the man hears its beating. The sound seems to be louder and louder. To me, the man thinks that the old man is still living and the police will find out the trace of the old man. As a result, the man’s plan and prediction are broken up easily. Being a human being, we can also have mistakes and maybe we do not understand which motivation leads us to become a murderer. The man is to kill the old man because of his eye so that he can get rid of the old man’s eye immediately. The man feels afraid not only the old man’s shadow but also his eye. To me, the man thinks that he has robbed the old man’s eye, even fate. Naturally, the old man also comes back to retake everything which belongs to his possessive right, even the old man can haunt all of the man’s remaining life until he dies. In fact, “cause leads to consequence”, we are too. When we do wrong work, we are not uncourageous to acknowledge our mistakes. However, after rethinking we know what right and say “I am sorry about whatever happens”. Now and then we admit that it is difficult for us to say “sorry”, but it is better if we ask for forgiveness. For that reason the man confesses at the end of the story is like the consequence for bad action that he has caused for the old man.

In the world, nobody is perfect. Sometimes one of us also makes mistakes. Maybe the mistakes are serious or not. Perhaps, we feel scared, however, we can not hide our mistakes which we had done. Simply, we are human beings and we have certain thought and never act as a madman.

Secondly, being a human being, he cannot exist from the court of conscience inside his body. At the end of the story, obviously, the old man has died and we know a die person cannot say anything. On the contrary, the man hears the beating of the old man’s heart. The sound makes him uncomfortable. Sometimes, during the period of killing, the man is in confident temper and never fears. Maybe he is sure nobody has enough magical abilities to discover his safe plan of killing. When the cops are coming to check, he still sits on the desk put over the head of the old man. The man shouts loudly to show that nothing will ever frighten out of his wits. Nevertheless, it is usual that the dark face which existing inside his body is invading all of his temper. He feels suffocation and does not believe the soul of the old man is threatening him. In addition, the court of conscience in side his body or dark face is trampling upon his mind. He fears the punishing of conscience and is having qualms of conscience. Besides, he does not want to live in the guilty during his remaining life. In fact, we had read many newspaper articles which tell about killing person although the murderer kills him or her without trace, the cop still can search after truth. That is the reason why there are many people being ready to receive his or her guilty after killing others. Simply he or she scares when facing to the call of his conscience. Therefore, he or she thinks that confession is the liberation for people who always want to escape the obsession.

In fact, according to people’s common attitude when we loose one thing which has important meaning to our life, we will feel very regrettable.

At last, the confession at the end of the story is the repent about the man’s sin. Perhaps, the man feels regrettable about what he caused for the old man. Because of guiltless eye, the man has taken the old man’s fate furiously. To me, the man wishes he could not kill the old man. Maybe when killing the old man, the man never thinks about the consequence later. Until now, he wonders himself that why he can become the mad man at that time. Do you think that changing mind will change your soul? The old man is sinless; he deserves to live being murdered. At the beginning, the man desires to kill the old man with abject intention. In fact, I have beheld one situation which likes the man’s case. At the party, that person sees this person with provoking eyes, but he does not have any bad think. After the party ended, this person has used the knife to impale that person’s body because this person thinks that person does not respect him. As a result, this person feels guilty and confesses his fault with the police as the man in this story. In fact, when hating a person, we only want to do everything to make ourselves satisfied such as harming him or making him injured. However, after reaching our bad objective, we wish we never did it. For that reason, in the story “the tell-take heart” the man’s confession is considered the consequence of the regret about his guilt.

After all, in my point of view the fear, the court of conscience and the regret are the three main reasons leading to the man’s confession. As is natural, the regret will make his temper twinkled, and the court of conscience seems to be a person who reminds him of his serious offense or crime. Thereto, there is having qualms of conscience existing in the man’s soul. In addition, the fear creates motivation to force the man confess at the end of the story. Throughout this story, now and then, it is difficult for us to receive our guilt, but it will be a meaningful thing if we can confess our guilt loyally.

TOPIC: What lesson have you learned from the confession of the narrator?

Composed by Nguyen Thi Dao - DH06AVQ1

Each of the stories has its own meaning and at least one message, which gives the readers. In” Rip Van Winkle”, the readers can easily realize its messages that we not only have the responsibility to our family but also are patient in all works. But in” The tell tale heart”, if it is easy for us to realize its lessons. In my point of view, there are some lessons that we can learn from the confession of the narrator.

The first thing is that we should not be too confident in all situations. Throughout the story, the narrator is always confident of his plan. He believes that no one knows his intend, no one suspects his action, and his plan is perfect. Furthermore, his confident is shown the action he invites three police officers into the room and he places his own seat upon the very spot beneath which responses the corpse of the victim. Obviously, the narrator is sufficient in his plan. However, it was the confidence that ruins the narrator. Normally, when some one is too confident, they often have a passion for the succession, and then they fail in their own succession without knowing. The narrator is the same. Although the police officers do not have any suspect, the narrator finally confesses his crime. Maybe, the narrator’s confession is result from his confidence. Therefore, when doing anything, we should not be too confident.

Another thing, we must understand that no crime can cover forever. The more something covers, the more it is discovered. The crime is not sometimes discovered by some one, but it is discovered by murder. It is simple to understand. If some one becomes the murder because of some motivation, not bad characteristics, they will certainly be haunted about their crime. They will fear, regret and be tormented by their conscience. It explains why the narrator himself confesses at the end of the story although no one discovers his crime. The narrator feels fear. The fear causes by the beating of the heart acts an internal motivation for the narrator to finally confess to the murder. It was the beating that is the telling of his conscience. Therefore, the saying” no crime can covers forever” helps us understand that we can cover everyone, but we can not cover our own conscience.

Finally, we should not deny our mistakes; on the contrary, being ready to admit those is the best way that we should do. Certainly, everyone has ever made mistake at least one time in life; however, it is important how we face to our mistakes, admit or deny those. For the narrator,” The tell tale heart”, although he never admits to have a guilty conscience, it is obvious that the narrator does feel guilty for murdering the old man. It was the beating of the heart that proves it. When the beating returns, he begins to have an intensive fight between his brain and his conscience. The narrator’s brain tries to muffle the sound of the beating heart with his action in order to forget his crime, but his own conscience is incapable of being silenced. Finally, he confesses his murder with the police. In other word, he finally dare admit his crime. It also is the final lesson which each of us can draw from the narrator’s confession in’ The tell tale heart”.

In short, each of the stories gives us a lot of lessons. It is important if we can understand those lessons. In this story, there are a lot of lessons for us. For example, no crime can cover forever, don’t be too confident and let’s admit mistakes. If we understand clearly those after finishing the story, we can certainly improve our characteristics. Besides, we need to know that a person’s heart is one of the most vital organs in our body. Without a heart, life would become unmeaning because the heart is the telling of the conscience.

Topic: The discussion today in your class did not end with the argument that the narrator was a mad man or not. How do you justify your stance? (The narrator was mad or not mad)

Composed by Lê Thị Thuý Quỳnh

Edgar Allan Poe is very successful in two categories in his works: tales of terror and stories of intellect. One of his “Tales of terror” works is “The tell-tale heart.” In this short story, the unknown main character is also the narrator who told the story how he killed an old man lived with him. The reason made him to do that is just the eyes of the old man. The narrator was obsessed by these vulture-eyes. The simple and silly motivation for his evil that let people think he was a mad man, but the calm and cleverness in his serious crime also demonstrate that he was not mad. In my opinion, I think he was not mad, even he is a normal person. Some clear evidences as follows will explain why I could affirm that.

First, the narrator is not a mad man because of his wise mind. He knows exactly which one made him uncomfortable. That’s the eyes of the old man, the vulture-eyes because he said that “I love the old man. He had never wronged me…, except his blue, grey eyes”. A mad man could not know accurately reason of his action, but in this case, the narrator know what and why did lead him to do such evil things. He was obsessed the vulture-eye and he couldn’t control his evil thinking. “A vulture-eye”- this reason seemed stupid but in reality, there was many murders killing their victims because of their appearance like this. Besides, if he was a mad man, he would try to avoid it, so he was not mad. Furthermore, the mad man doesn’t have ability to make a perfect plan. In the work “The tell-tale heart”, we can see how carefully he made a plan to kill the old man. Obviously, the narrator has a wise mind. Every night, he returned the latch of the old man’s door and opened it. Then, he put in a dark lantern, no light shone out. He moved slowly so that he might not disturb the old man’s sleep. During seven nights, he repeated his action to see the old man lay on his bed. He couldn’t do anything because the eye always closed whereas he only killed the old man when the vulture-eye opened. Therefore, he waited the chance to come during seven long nights; until the eighth night, when the old man opened his eye because of the dim ray light, the narrator killed the old man. Actually, a mad man couldn’t do like that. Especially, after killing the old man, the narrator also concealed carefully the corpse under the planks by cutting the dead body into three parts: the head, the arms and the legs. He also washed blood-spot cautiously. His plan was so perfect that a mad man couldn’t do like this. All above evidences, I think that the narrator wasn’t a mad man.

Second, a mad man often doesn’t confess his crime. Although in our life, people still believe in the “cause – consequence” rule because of their religions. I think that the narrator’s confession is evident. However, if the murder was mad, he couldn’t do that because they lack of good sense. In this story, after killing the old man and hiding his dead body under the planks, the narrator still heard the beating of the old man’s heart. Actually, this beating came from his mind, his heart not from the corpse. Those sounds came from his nervous, anxious and guilty about his wrong. The good overslept when his evil killed the old man without a minute of hesitation. Then, it awoke, made him fearful and forced him to do the right thing. We can see clearly that these above senses just come from a normal men, it can’t come from a mad man who doesn’t have ability to control himself.

Last but not least, his mentality is strong so he is not a mad man. It doesn’t like as followed myth “The mad man never thinks he is mad which is similar to a drunker who never thinks he is drunk?” In “Tell-tale heart”, the narrator repeated many time that “I am not a mad man”. I think that, he actually is not mad in his words. He said this to confirm to the policemen or everyone that he killed the old man with a wise mind not disordered mental. Maybe his silly reason made people believe that he was mad, but actually he was not mad. Nowadays, in our life, having many murderers killed their victims without the motive for his crime even someone didn’t know why they killed them. After finishing their crime, they feel regret and confess as the narrator here. This is also the bad face of men. Sometimes we could lose our control in our action. I think among many choices to keep away from the old man’ eye, the narrator chose the worst thing that was killing the old man. In this work, the narrator maybe over-suffered from the old man’s eye. The last word, the narrator was not a mad man; on the contrary he had a strong spirit.

Through this story, the narrator who is the main character in work “Tell-tale heart” committed a crime within a silly and unacceptable reason although his mind is very wise and strong. He really isn’t a mad person. The author wants to refer to the human morality in this work. I can understand the limit between the good and the bad is very frail.

Question: The discussion today in your class did not end with the argument that the narrator was a mad man or not. How do you justify your stance? (The narrator was mad or not mad)

Composed by Vo Chi Trung

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He wrote about tales of mystery and macabre. One of his famous tales is “The Tell – Tale Heart” which is a story of a man who kills an old man with a vulture eyes. Someone said that the narrator in that story was a mad man because they think that no one kills a person just because of his eyes, but some refused the judgment that the narrator really was a mad man. In my stance, I believed that the narrator was not a mad man.

Firstly, a mad man cannot detail the story clearly. In the tale, the narrator proved that he was not mad by telling a story of killing an old man. For example, he recognized that the old man was a lovely man and he loved the old man. Besides, he could describe the eyes of the old man in detail. In each of his action, the narrator could remember and define them. He also treated the old man well. I had witnessed a mad man telling a story. There were many conflict in the way he talked. The narrator in the tale can tell the story logically and we cannot find out any conflict in his story. In short, the narrator was not a mad man.

Secondly, due to his perfect plan of killing the old man, the narrator again demonstrated that he was no a mad man. The motivation led to killing of the old man is the vulture eyes so he mad a perfect plan. For seven nights, the narrator went into the old man’s room and put in a lantern in order for the light beam to shine the old man’s eyes, but he did not succeed. At 8th night, the narrator mad some noise so the old man woke up. As usual, the narrator put in the lantern and it shone the vulture eyes. The narrator killed the old man, cut off his body and hided them under the floor. He effaced all vestiges as well. In addition, he was so confident that he invited three policemen to come and sit into the old man’s room for chatting. Once again, his plan justified for that he was not a mad man.

Finally, a mad man cannot confess his guilty action. At the end of the story, the narrator heard a dreadful ticking noise that made him not withstand anymore and admit his crime. He thought that the noise was from the pulsing heart of the old man. The narrator had enough cognition and awareness to notice that his action is blameworthy. From the bottom of his heart, he felt the gnawing of conscience. That made him avow his sin. In brief, the narrator cannot be a mad man because of his awareness about wrongdoing.

Generally, in the tale, the narrator proved that he was not a mad man due to three things. First, a mad man cannot detail the story logical, but the narrator can. Second, a mad man cannot make a perfect-killing plan, but the narrator can. Thirdly, a mad man cannot notice his action, but the narrator can. After this tale, we have learned that in each of our action, if we do something wrong or guilty, we shall pay for it.