There are many techniques that writers use to further develop their literature. Through these techniques a writer chooses how he or she wants the story to be understood, how the characters are perceived, how the place and time of the story are important, and when to twist the plot in another direction. When these techniques are mastered a great writer is born. An example of this is Edgar Allan Poe. Poe uses each technique in each of his stories. I will discuss in the following paper how Poe uses irony and symbolism in three of his short stories, "The Black Cat", "The Cask of Amontillado", and "The Tell-Tale Heart".
             The short story "The Black Cat", written by Poe, has a plot which is based on irony. The biggest contributor of this is the love that the narrator has for animals when he is young. The narrator says that he felt most happy as a child when he was feeding and caressing the animals that his parents had given him. This love for animals stayed with him well into his early manhood. This could be seen by the fact that he and his wife owned birds, goldfish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.
             Ironically this loved turned into hate. Animals now seemed to annoy rather than comfort him. Pluto, who was a black cat and his closest pet, now caused a feeling of hatred from its owner just at it's sight. Out of this felling the narrator poked out one of Pluto's eye's with a pen and later hung the cat from a tree killing it. This proves that the narrator who at first was shown as an animal lover now can't stand the sight of them and went as far as killing for no reason.
             The irony continues when another black cat comes into the narrator's life. At first this cat too was treated as a friend, but eventually appeared as just as much of a threat as the other cat. The narrator attempted to cut off this cat's head with an ax, but was stopped by his wife. In...