Faulkner

In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, William Faulkner stated that the “human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about.” Well-written stories can evoke a range of emotions from readers. They can entertain us, make us laugh, make us scared, or make us cry. The most memorable stories, that ones that stick with us long after we have read them, are the ones that teach us something. Whether the characters do something bizarre and have to find a way to overcome or they have to navigate life learning from each small bump in the road, seeing their internal struggle has an impact on the reader. Two stories that are perfect examples of this are Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”.

In Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator immediately opens the story by defending himself to the reader. He claims that his actions are a result of nerves and that some disease has overtaken him, but he assures us that he can calmly re-tell the story of how he came to be in his position (par. 1). We can see the narrator’s initial struggles: to prove his sanity and defend whatever actions he has done. As the story progresses, we discover that the narrator has killed the character called the “old man” and he tries to explain his motive:

Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture- a pale blue eye with a film over it. (Poe, par. 2)

As we continue reading, the narrator informs us of the necessary steps he had to take in planning to rid himself of the vulture eye. Every night at midnight he would carefully open the old man’s door while he slept and peek his head in. Once there was enough room for the lantern, he would shine it just on the old man’s eye to see...