#18 Reader’s Journal 1/2/12
Dear Mrs. Zrihen,
Over winter break I read the short story, The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe. I looked for short stories online and this story was one of the first one I found.
The passage I decided to choose was:
“THERE are certain themes of which the interest is all-absorbing, but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction.”
I chose this passage because it is the first sentence of the story and usually if the first sentence hooks you, you will enjoy the book. I actually was confused by this first sentence because I didn’t know if the author was actually talking to the reader as himself or as a character, so I guess this sentence hooked me because I wanted to read more to find out. It is significant to the story because the first sentence could either grab a reader’s attention, making them want to continue reading, or it could make them consider choosing a different book.
I used many strategies before, during, and after reading this story. Before reading, I thought about the prior knowledge I knew about this author. In Language Arts we read a book by the same author so I knew he usually writes horror books about murder and death. I also made predictions on what I thought the story would be about. By knowing the author’s writing style and by reading the title, The Premature Burial, I predicted that this book would have to do with death by burying someone alive. While reading, I looked up words I didn’t know the meaning. Also while reading, I took notes on any literary elements and figurative language I identified. After reading I checked back to see if the predictions I made before reading were true. Also, I looked at the notes I wrote to write my reader’s journal.
The genre of this book is fiction and the subgenre is a horror short story because it focuses on one main conflict and one main plot, it is shorter than a regular novel, it was read in one sitting, and has elements of a horror novel. I am not sure, but I believe the protagonist is the narrator. Throughout the story he mentions names of other characters, which are the foil characters. The foil characters are Julien Bossuet, Monsieur Renelle, Mr. Edward Stapleton, a friend of the narrator, and many other unnamed characters like a doctor and an officer. There is no antagonist. There are many places where this story takes place and different weather conditions but it is all around the 19th century. One social condition is that the narrator is crazy.
The plot was very confusing because there wasn’t an exposition or rising action. The narrator told stories about people being buried alive and how it was wonderful that they were. Then, after the narrator is finished telling other people’s stories, it jumps to the climax where he is actually planning to bury someone alive. I couldn’t identify a falling action but the resolution was that the narrator buried the person alive and was happy about it.
The conflict was man vs. man because the narrator wanted to bury a girl when she was still alive. This type of conflict is external. The tone of this story is spooky and creepy and the mood is disgusted and horrified. The theme is death and murders. The author’s motif is that he likes to write scary stories that will horrify the readers. There is no moral because no lesson was taught. The point-of-view is first person because the narrator is talking in his perspective and tells his stories using I, me, us, etc. The author’s purpose is to entertain readers with a scary short story. Since the point-of-view is first person, the author’s perspective is biased to whoever or whatever the narrator does and doesn’t like.
When trying to look for figurative language I was a little confused. The writing is old English and some of the things the author says seems like figurative language but is just how people used to write, so I wasn’t able to identify any figurative language.
(#44) I couldn’t believe how horrifying this story actually was.
(Free Write) If I could change something in the book it would have to be the amount of details the author includes. It made this short story feel like a novel even though I read it in one sitting.
Overall, this book was pretty boring and very disturbing. Some of the details were too detailed and the writing was confusing. I would rate this book a 4 out of 10. Wouldn’t really recommend this book to anyone unless you are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe.
Sincerely,
Bailey Levy 802
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