Tell Essays - Fiction With Unreliable Narrators, The Tell-Tale Heart

Tell Tale Heart By Poe The short story can produce many different "types" of characters. Usually, these characters are faced with situations that give us an insight into their true "character". In the Tell Tale Heart, a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator of the story is faced with a fear. He is afraid of the Old Man's Eye. The actions that this narrator performs in order to quell his fear can lead others to believe that he suffers from some sort of mental illness. The very fact that this narrator is so repulsed by the old man's eye, which he refers to as "the evil eye", is reason enough to be suspicious of his character. The narrator has an inner struggle with the thought that "the evil eye" is watching him and an underlying feeling that "the evil eye" will see the real person that he has become. This paranoia leads the narrator to believe that the only way he can put down his fears is to kill the old man. It is said that denial is usually the sign of a problem. If this holds true, then the narrator has the characteristics of a "madman". In the first paragraph, he asks, "but why will you say that I am mad!" (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) This statement can be looked upon as a statement made by someone going through a paranoid episode. He talks as if he is in frenzy, especially when he talks about hearing things in heaven and in hell. "The disease had sharpened my senses?Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven?I heard many things in hell." (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The "disease" that the narrator is talking about eats away at his conscience until "[I] made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever." (Kennedy & Gioia, 34) The progression of the story revolves around the actions of the narrator. He describes the "wise" ways in which he prepares himself to commit this deed. The way the narrator "stalks" the old man the whole week before he kills him can be evidence of a problem. Every night he would watch the old man sleep. He found comfort in knowing that the eye was not watching him, that it could not see the true evil within his soul. While the eye was closed, so was the idea of killing the old man. It is not until the old man awakens each day that the struggle within is apparent. This may be the reason why the narrator is so obsessed with watching the old man sleep. The actual act of murder, which the narrator believes was premeditated, was in fact a spur of the moment action. He toiled with the idea while the man was awake, that is, while he could see the "evil eye". However, while the eye was closed, the narrator was at peace. One night, during one of the narrator's "stalking" sessions, the old man awakens. The narrator goes into a paranoid frenzy, mistaking the beating of his heart for the beating of the old man's heart. During this frenzy, the narrator is afraid that neighbors will hear the beating of the man's heart. This causes the narrator to take action. He quickly subdues the old man and kills him. He then takes extreme steps in disposing of the body, dismembering it and burying it under the planks in the floorboard. These extreme actions can be used as evidence to the paranoia that is taking shape. The fear of getting caught would be a normal reaction to someone who has committed a murder. However, the dismemberment of the body was not necessary since the narrator had ample resources to dispose of the body properly. When the police arrive at the house, the narrator is sure that he has nothing to fear. He lets them into the house and bids them to search wherever they like. He leads them into the room where the body is buried and invites them to sit down. Although he fears nothing consciously, the narrator battles with his conscience subconsciously. He begins to feel uneasy when the officers start talking to him. The paranoia begins to build steadily and before long, the narrator hears the beating of his heart, which he again mistakes for the beating of the corpse's heart. This implication gives further evidence to the paranoid nature of the narrator. The beating grows louder

Censorship In Radio Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Censorship In Radio Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers HTML> HEAD> TITLE>Censorship In Radio/TITLE>/HEAD> BODY> Censorship in radio For the past several years Freedom of speech in America has had its meaning changed many times. Although the changes have gone unnoticed by most Americans, In the radio business they are felt day in and day out. radio personalities, programmers, and owners have to deal with this everyday but they too have no real idea what the Federal Communications Commissions idea of free speech is. You see the rule seems to change depending on who you are. If you are tagged by the FCC anything the broadcaster does or says is monitored and picked over and fined.( Howard stern. King Of All Media.165-166 ) The FCC has been picking on Howard Stern for years, they singled Howard for doing trash radio. But according to Stern other programs are saying or doing the same if not worse things than he is. Stern tells of when Geraldo said (Stern Miss America. 526-530.) in a show about the Mennendez brothers being molested for doing something wrong. Hell, Im not for child molestation, but if I knew anal sex . . . punishment, Id keep my room clean. Geraldo goes untouched. but Howard got fined for saying lesbians filled with lust. (Howard Stern. Miss America.519). That seems a bit more tame to me but since Stern is tagged he gets fined. The First Amendment states. congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech. This rule, over the years has changed to congress shall make . . . as interpreted by the FCC (king of all. 165) this makes no sense the word freedom, according to Websters Dictionary means the state of being free from constraints, possession of political and civil rights, unrestricted access or use yet, the FCC is in charge of what can and cant be said over the airwaves. The FCC is the god of the broadcasting industry, they do not have to answer to anybody they have all the power to do whatever they want. The basic rule for a deejay is that he/she may not use the seven dirty words, all know them and understand they can not use them, But what nobo dy knows is, what else cant a deejay say over the air. The rules are not documented. Most stations go by their own policy, And if their policy is wrong and something goes over the air that isnt supposed to they can get pulled ( off the air) or fined. Martin Espada is a person who got pulled from the air and his poem censored. ( all things censored. 20-22 ) Espada says, he wrote a poem for the radio program All Things Considered called imagine the angels of bread about an African American wrongly accused of killing a Philadelphia police officer. And with the heat the poem would have generated the program with some forceful help from the FCC type group called National Public Radio the poem was pulled and Espada was no longer allowed to read his poetry on the air. Now Espada was never fined from the FCC because his poem never made the air waves, but the real question is, If it had, would Espada been fined? probably not, Because so many deejays that do trash radio never even get looked at by the FCC Because they are not marked yet. This shows the hypocrisy of the FCC. I myself have lived in many different cities all across the United States and Ive listened to just about every local deejay in those cities and they are all pretty much doing the same thing as Howard Stern, yet no fines hardly at all, I watch television and see the same type of show, again no fines, Joe salzman writes about the hypocrisy of free speech. ( hypocrisy rules the air waves.) He points out that shows like Seinfeld, (In prime time when most kids are watching) can talk about Sexual intercourse, Masturbation, bodily functions, male and female sex organs, Impotence, homosexuality, and birth control methods. and people and the media love him. And a show like the Howard Stern Show.( in the morning, when most kids are in school.) talks about sexual intercourse, . .