Question

24. Respond to one of the following essay prompts:

Answer 1

Since we can choose only one of the prompts, let's work with prompt A. We can answer it in the following manner:

- Edgar Allan Poe believed that a good short story must have a single, unifying effect. He did apply that concept to his own short stories. Let's briefly analyze "The Fall of the House of Usher."

- In the story, every element contributes to the story's effect: the setting, the characters, the dialogue, the word choice and the mood, among others.

- From the beginning, the narrator describes an "oppressive" weather. He proceeds to let us know that his friend Usher looks sick and strange. The house where Usher lives is also quite eerie. And to top it all, Usher's sister, who was buried alive, has returned for revenge.

- As seen above, each element unifies the story, producing a single effect. Readers cannot help but feel tense and anxious as they read on.

• Edgar Allan Poe was an American Romantic writer famous for his Gothic short stories.

• Poe believed a good short story should possess a single, unifying effect, and that everything in the story should contribute to that effect.

• He achieves that in his short stories, where every element (characters, setting, imagery, word choice, etc.) contributes to the feeling of tension, anxiety, even horror.

• That is what happens in "The Fall of the House of Usher," for example. Readers cannot escape the terrifying effect Poe builds.

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