Question

1 Point

Answer 1

Answer:

The answer is Option B: "The narrator declares that he will die but the reader does not know  why."

Explanation:

In the passage from "The Black Cat," Edgar Allan Poe claims that he will die tomorrow and he needs to unburden his soul regarding some regular household events that are terrifying to him. He says the event is unbelievable but that he is not crazy. He states there may be someone else who can explain what happened more calmly and concretely so that it might not seem to wild and dream-like as he feels it is. The author is about to start telling us about what happened that led to his death, or at least that is what is implied in this passage.  

Answer 2

Answer:

I would say the correct answer is B. The narrator declares that he will die but the reader does not know  why.

Explanation:

The information that he is going to die the following day is the only fact we are given in this passage. The rest is the narrator's distressed mood as a backdrop for the story he is about to tell. But at this point, we still know nothing about what happened. From the moment he says he's going to die, the suspense begins. Why will he die? What did he do? Was he wrongly convicted? Or maybe he really committed a serious crime and deserves to die? Those are the questions that pop up in a reader's mind due to the suspense created.

B) Isn't correct because he doesn't admit to making up anything. On the contrary, he claims that the story really happened, however unbelieavable it may sound. He doesn't even expect us to believe him. The only thing he wants is to "unburthen his soul".

Here's why C) isn't correct. Sure, he allows us to observe him as an unreliable narrator - a storyteller whom we can't trust without reservation because he is either distressed or mad or biased. But he never says he's crazy. On the contrary - "Mad am I not", even though he admits that many people will think him mad after hearing his story.

Finally, D) isn't correct because he doesn't mention any crimes in this passage. We assume that he commited a crime and is now imprisoned and awaiting death sentence because of it, but it's only an assumption. We still have no other facts to work with. And he doesn't mention having been the direct victim, even though he's been "terrified - tortured - destroyed" by those events.