1.1: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

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Directions

Here, you will find the "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, a Video Lecture on the text, and a Video of the Reading from The Simpsons.

The essay is is a ..docx file. I recommend either saving to your drive for future use. Otherwise, you will not have the file to look at later. Either way, you should taking notes on the digital copy on your computer, or taking notes on the story on a separate piece of paper.

Author's Bio:

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Within a year, his alcoholic father deserted his mother and three infant children. When his mother died of tuberculosis in Richmond, Virginia, three-year-old Edgar was adopted by John Allan and his wife. Allan, a prosperous businessperson, spent time in England, where Poe began his education at private schools.

Back in the United States, Allan forced Poe to leave the University of Virginia in 1826 when Poe incurred gambling debts he could not pay. He served in the U.S. Army from 1827 to 1829, eventually attaining the rank of sergeant major. Poe next attended West Point, hoping for further military advancement.

Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Allan died of tuberculosis. Poe angrily confronted his foster father about his extramarital affairs; for this candour, he was disowned. Believing that Allan would never reinstate him as heir, Poe deliberately violated rules to provoke his dismissal from the Academy. In 1835, Poe began his career as editor, columnist, and reviewer, earning a living he could not make as a writer of stories and poems. That same year, he married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, and lived with her and her mother during a period marked by illness and poverty. Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847. Poe died, delirious, under mysterious circumstances, in 1849.

He perfected the Gothic horror story with “The Fall of the House of Usher” and originated the modern detective story in “The Gold-Bug” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

While going over the reading , keep these questions/ideas in mind:

What are some themes/ messages that you see in the text?
What does this speech make you feel/think of?
What does a raven represent to you?
Do you see examples of Ethos(credibility), Pathos(emotion), Logos(Logic), and Kairos (Rhetorical Situation)?
Do you see examples of the rhetorical strategies from the Rhetorical Strategies PowerPoint?
What are some ways this text is convincing?
Can you begin to connect to the words in the text. What about these word choices, imagery, allusion, makes you feel a particular way? Explain.

Essay 1 Prompt

What does it mean?

How does the text use specific rhetorical strategies to deliver its intended theme/message?

TITLE/AUTHOR+THEME +STRATEGIES=Thesis

Requirements:

Proper MLA Format
3-5 pages (Full pages)
Works Cited Page

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