"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe would not be the masterpiece it is today without Poe's clever use of foreshadowing, language, and shock. All of these characteristics contribute greatly to the intriguing plot, and images are extremely clear due to the vivid use of words and details.
             " Evil thoughts became my sole intimates- the darkest and most evil of thoughts." By reading this one sentence, Poe evokes a desire in the reader to know what happens, and from then on you are on the edge of your seat with suspense. In the story, Poe describes a man's love of animals. As a boy, this man surrounds himself with every creature imaginable- birds, dogs, rabbits, and a big black cat named Pluto. The latter is an undeniable favorite, and lives as the man reaches adulthood. One night, in a fit of intoxicated rage and dislike, the man cuts one of Pluto's eyes from its socket! As this event happens fairly early in the tale, Poe expertly foreshadows what might come of both Pluto and the man, yet leaves much to the imagination of the reader.
             " Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will cause my phantasm to the commonplace- some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects." Poe's extensive use of vocabulary is impossible to overlook in "The Black Cat." His use of expressions to describe the images of the cat, the reactions to the disappearance of the man's wife, and the internal turmoil the man faces, are enough to carry the story line. Yet again, Poe succeeds in creating vivid mental pictures that entangle you in an intricate web of words.
             Edgar Allan Poe's usage of shock, however, is what truly makes this story most innovative and original. "One morning, in cold blood, I slipped a noose about its [the cat's] neck and hung it to the limb of the tree." Unconventional...