Reflection #1

Title of Short Story: The Raven

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

1) The Protagonist is Edgar Allan Poe himself. I believe Edgar's desire in this story is to forget about his previous lover Lenore, who had recently passed away. Some of his traits are that he's a very lonesome man right now because of this loss. He seems to have a mixture of sadness and anger within him; most likely he's suffering depression in this story.

2) I don't think there is an antagonist, I feel Edgar is fighting against himself in this story because of memories. He begins hearing taps at his door, and hears Lenore's name being whispered to him. This is a sign of her visitation to his home. He suddenly sees a Raven perched on the top of his door, and begins questioning it's presence there, and all the Raven replies to him is "Nevermore". This is as if the Raven just keeps on reminding Edgar that he will never have Lenore ever again in his life, and he will never be completely over her or ever be able to "let her go" in a sense.

3) The theme of this story is death. The technique used in order to develop this story is symbolism. The Raven is known as a bird, that when seen around lingering, is a sign that death is near or has already arrived.

4) In the beginning of the story, Edgar's tone in the story seems tired and somewhat annoyed at the disturbance of noise he receives at his door. As the story progresses you can sense the fear building up in Edgar's tone, eventually turning into a depressing tone because of the loss of his lover and him remembering her. The techniques that help develop Edgar's voice is the use of poetic rhyming throughout the story as well as description of sounds and surroundings.

5) The crisis action in this story is that Edgar begins questioning the Raven of it's presence there and what it happens to mean by repeating "Nevermore", eventually getting angry and telling it to leave him be in his loneliness. The Raven just responds "Nevermore" to Edgar, and never leaves the spot above his door. Edgar ends up not getting what he wants; which was to forget Lenore and be over her death. He realizes he will never be over Lenore's death.

6) What I love the most about this story is how Edgar Allan Poe truly uses his poetic talent to bring alive the dark tone of this short story. Rhymes such as
"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore." express Edgar's pain over her loss in a strong manner; it's almost like I can feel just how much he may have loved Lenore, and how he thought he was over her completely. I also like how he uses symbolism with the Raven to represent his own mind messing with him. He keeps wanting to forget Lenore, and not even have a single thought or memory or when she was alive and no matter how much he tries to forget he is reminded that he will never have her back, and she will never exist again. It shows just how deep his depression is over this love he lost and it makes it all the more difficult for him when he suddenly receives the visit of his memories.