Causing Fear And Sorrow English Literature Essay

An of import end of literature is the edifice of a connexion between a work and its audience by working common experiences and their emotional responses. Without these personal investings, a reader can go uninterested, and any message the writer intends to portray may be misunderstood. Within the two plants â€Å" The Raven † by Edgar Allen Poe and â€Å" A Good Man is Difficult to Find † by Flannery O'Connor, it is easy to detect the writers ‘ efforts at doing fright and sorrow for the reader by the writers ‘ use of common irrational frights within their Hagiographas. After a thorough scrutiny of important subdivisions within the texts and an probe on how readers may respond to single characters, one can so compare the texts to derive a better grasp of the attempts submitted by the writers to associate to their audiences of today and long ago. Although it could be argued that these writers ‘ mark audiences were merely readers populating at the clip the narratives were drafted, these narratives continue to bring down eerie feelings on the common individual of today. From his ain words, when discoursing â€Å" The Raven † in an essay, Poe explains his purposes for the reader by saying, â€Å" Now, ne'er losing sight of the object supremeness, or flawlessness, at all points, I asked myself – ‘Of all melancholic subjects, what, harmonizing to the cosmopolitan apprehension of world, is the most melancholic? ‘ Death – was the obvious answer † ( Poe 1846 ) . While decease is arguably non the most cheerless subject soon, one will doubtless witness the attempts Poe endured for the interest of the reader as they comprehend this powerful verse form. As decease is a universally understood construct, he creates a narrative that will elicit a reader ‘s emotions by coercing them to retr ieve old experiences or by act uponing them to visualize themselves as the storyteller. By the 2nd stanza of the verse form, Poe brings out the message of decease and sets the plaintive tone of the verse form with the lines, â€Å" From my books cessation of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore – For the rare and beaming maiden whom the angels name Lenore – Nameless here everlastingly more † ( Poe 1016 ) . As one interprets these lines, they imagine a beautiful adult female who has abandoned the talker, or possibly has late passed off. While non straight saying she has died, by proposing her anonymity, Poe pulls at the audience ‘s experience, and makes them inquire if Lenore is now nameless because she has late passed on or if the storyteller is trying to bury her by non leting himself to advert her name any longer, as many in similar state of affairss continue to make. The sorrow of decease continues within the 3rd and 4th poetries. The reader finds that although it is the center of the dark, the talker hears sounds of person knocking at his door, nevertheless as he goes to react to them he discovers nil but darkness outside ( Poe 1016 ) . While the actual actions listed here already intensify the sorrow with an sum of upseting atmosphere, the audience can besides falter upon a nonliteral significance, as though alternatively of a individual strike harding it is really the memory of Lenore trying to come in his head, so rapidly fliting as disconcerting memories frequently do. Since most readers have fought similar conflicts within their ain heads, this subdivision once more battles to take the narrative from the storyteller and attach it to the reader. Traveling on to the 6th and 7th stanzas, the reader stumbles onto uninterrupted tapping. These lines express the tapping is louder and perchance coming from the talker ‘s window ( Poe 1016-1017 ) . The audience is now pulled in two waies as either the tapping is truly go oning and a Corvus corax has really entered into the room, or the memory of Lenore has eventually obtained entryway into the storyteller ‘s head. The two waies both lead the reader to a darkened topographic point as with one, the reader is witnessing an unwelcome animate being within the room, and with the other, the memories the chief character has invariably tried to bury hold begun to thrust ahead into his head and overwhelm him. Within poetries eight through 17, the reader views the storyteller as a adult male in the procedure of traveling huffy, as he begins to talk with the Corvus corax that has entered into the room ( Poe 1017-1018 ) . While the conversation continues, the reader must make up one's mind whether to believe a bird is really in the room and merely the address is imagined, or if the bird and the conversation are both wholly within the head of the talker, and the lunacy expressed is merely some type of internal spiritual argument on the whereabouts of Lenore. In either instance, the reader ‘s emotions are being manipulated purposefully to show the solitariness and unhappiness one faces when they lose a loved one. In the concluding poetry, the reader is once more pulled in two waies. When Poe writes, â€Å" And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor ; And my psyche from out that shadow that lies drifting on the floor Shall be lifted – nevermore! † ( Poe 1018 ) , he intentionally forces the audience to once more make up one's mind if the full verse form is some type of internal argument or if the storyteller with has been driven insane and committed self-destruction. As the bulk of readers will hold experienced a loss of person stopping point to them to suicide, or may hold contemplated suicide themselves, they will hold the ability to sympathize with the storyteller, and by making so, will be emotionally invested within the verse form. While â€Å" The Raven † is a really nonreversible narrative where the message of decease is delivered by flashing it invariably to the reader, O'Connor ‘s â€Å" A Good Man is Difficult to Find † takes the attack suggested by G. W. Thomas by making characters people care about and leting atrocious things to go on to them ( Thomas 3 ) . Interestingly, within the first four pages, O'Connor introduces the household members, but merely allows the grandma and the kids to talk, as they are the characters she wants the audience to link with. To to the full appreciate O'Connor ‘s attempt, one must foremost expose the oddities of these specific characters ‘ personalities. The two kids ( John Wesley and June Star ) come off as spoiled, and as if they starred on â€Å" Childs Say the Darndest Things, † they frequently give uneven comments within their conversations. A twosome of illustrations are John Wesley claiming if caught by The Misfit that he would, â€Å" Smack his face † ( O'Connor 447 ) and June Star ‘s response, â€Å" No I surely wouldn'taˆÂ ¦ I would n't populate in a bedraggled topographic point like this for a million vaulting horses! † ( O'Connor 450 ) , to the adult female at The Tower when she asks June to go her girl. The construct of kids being thankless is evidently non original, but the usage of these kids grants readers something to hate. Furthermore, when the kids are killed by The Misfit ‘s posse at the terminal of the narrative, the audience feels guilt over their abrasiveness of the kids as the decease of kids tends to pique people more than kids misconducting. Beyond the coarse kids, the grandma is the most active character within the narrative, and is invariably trying to pull strings the household to make what she wants. Due to how good O'Connor designed this character, the audience really gets manipulated as good. While the grandma will frequently state something indelicate, the audience rapidly dismisses these comments to her old age and grows closer to her, neglecting to see her mistakes for what they are. This connexion misleads the audience to feeling sorry for the grandma when she is killed, when they should hearten The Misfit for his service to the community. The concluding chief character of the narrative is The Misfit, a inmate who has late escaped prison and leads a group of work forces who finally murder the full household. While a hard-boiled felon is non typically a individual person would openly acknowledge to holding similarities to, O'Connor uses The Misfit ‘s apparently extended yesteryear to make resemblances to the readers. Along with the experiences the audience and The Misfit portion, she grants The Misfit ‘s character with wisdom and a sense of righteousness that the reader appreciates, doing an internal struggle of fright and sorrow when he shoots the grandma at the terminal. By the terminal of the narrative, the reader must make up one's mind for themselves whether The Misfit is so a â€Å" good adult male † or non. A comparing of the two Hagiographas â€Å" The Raven † and â€Å" A Good Man is Difficult to Find † is hard to do due to the narratives ‘ differences in manner. However, while their methods differ, both Poe ‘s and O'Connor ‘s narratives are able to lure fright and sorrow for their audiences. In â€Å" The Raven, † Poe relies on a great trade of symbolism to make the reader, while in â€Å" A Good Man is Difficult to Find † O'Connor uses well-developed characters to construct connexions to the audience and tortures them through the actions of those characters. Overall, both Poe and O'Connor like an expert navigate the reader ‘s emotions and experiences, doing the reader to contend themselves to happen the messages within the narratives. The end of maintaining an audience from experiencing disinterested in a narrative is a precedence that can merely be accomplished by coercing readers to happen connexions for themselves. With Poe ‘s clever usage of symbolism and O'Connor ‘s investing in character edifice, the two narratives â€Å" The Raven † and â€Å" A Good Man is Difficult to Find † both cause fright and sorrow through the connexions they ‘ve built to the readers. While one may merely read either of these narratives for enjoyment, they can compare the two to derive a better grasp of the writers ‘ attempts, and perchance happen more within the narratives to bask. Plants Sited Poe, Edgar Allen. â€Å" The Philosophy of Composition. † 1846. Graham ‘s Magazine. vol. XXVIII, no. 4 ( 1846 ) :163-167. The Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore. 21 Nov. 2010. Poe, Edgar Allen. â€Å" The Raven. † 1846. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 7th Edition. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2008. 1016-1018. O'Connor, Flannery. â€Å" A Good Man is Difficult to Find. † Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 7th Edition. Eds. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2008. 447-457. Thomas, G.W. â€Å" Scare the heck out of your readers — and other horror-writing tips. † The Writer Apr. 2008: 15. General OneFile. Web. 30 Nov. 2010.