Amir's Literature Blog

My Psychoanalysis of “The Black Cat”     For today’s blog post I will be answering a writing prompt in an attempt to psychoanalyse “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe. The prompt I chose is as follows: What unconscious motive might be operating in the main character? Throughout, the story the narrator seems to have an unconscious motive to alleviate his emotional turmoil. In an attempt to escape from his reality, as all heavy drinkers do, the narrator uses alcohol as a mode of alleviation. Despite entering a seemingly entranced alcoholic state, the narrator demonstrates usage of his ego by describing his alcoholism as “a terrible disease”. The author portrays that the narrator is making a conscious—albeit illogical—decision to nurture this disease of alcoholism. But why? The answer is revealed later in the passage when the narrator is discussing the abnormality of human behaviour when he says “There is something...evil thing”. In this passage, the narrator...

For this post, I was instructed to find my favourite version of the poem "Annabel Lee". After watching a few recitals and visual interpretations I discerned that my preferred version was the following video: There were a few reasons why I felt this recitation has successfully captured the essence of Poe's dark romantic poem. Firstly, I thought the soft and smooth sound of the speaker's voice complemented the poems narration of the ocean excellently. The soothing yet melancholic nature of her voice builds the eerie atmosphere. The second aspect that I appreciated was the pace that the speaker chooses. She maintained a uniform pace throughout the beginning and middle of the poem that reflected a storytelling-like narration. Towards the end of the recitation, the speaker makes the decision to increase the length of the pauses. By doing so the narrative effortlessly changes to that of an emotional mourning lover.  Another element of this video that contributed to the a...

Alcohol played a significant and rather unfortunate part in the life of Edgar Allan Poe. Riddled with misfortune, Poe was often in a state of emotional turmoil. From the deaths of his young wife to being shunned by his father, Poe’s life is almost as dark and ill-fated as his stories (which is likely because he portrayed himself in his writing). To deal with the endless tragedies, Poe was said to have fallen into both alcohol and drug abuse. His first experience with alcohol is estimated to be around the age of 17; during this period of his life, he began accumulating large debts from gambling. One of his peers said: "He would always seize the tempting glass, generally unmixed with sugar or water - in fact, perfectly straight - and without the least apparent pleasure, swallow the contents, never pausing until the last drop had passed his lips.”. After his father heard of his behavior, he was sent to the military. But the downward spiral into alcoholism had already begun....

Image that represents me My name is Amir Abusafieh. I am a Junior at Raha International School. Having been at this school for 8 years, I have witnessed a lot of changes to the school. I am Japanese Palestinian American. I speak both Japanese and English; however, my Arabic is definitely less than fluent. As an American, I have a deep love for the game of football—American football. Go Rams! On the weekends I spend time at the gym, studying, reading, or out with friends. Additionally, I enjoy debating (If you want CAS and are interested in debate team contact me)  and am an avid reader. On that note, Dogs>Cats by far. The things I care most about are being happy, my friends and family, success in my career, and health/fitness. To me, these are the most major facets of my life. Which I spend all my time cultivating. The reason I think it is important to study literature is for two main beneficial outcomes. Firstly, being able to develop the skills to articulate ou...