How Edgar Allan Poe’s Life Affected His Writing

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Any piece of work has an reason behind it. It may be a story told before or an event that has happened in real life. It also can be the theme behind the story. For Edgar Allen Poe it was the themes and the events of his life that inspired his stories and poems. Poe was inspired by the deaths he faced throughout his life and the hardships with money he had faced. Poe was born in January of 1809 in Boston. His parents were both gone by the time he was three. His father abandoned the family and his mother died in front of him. He was then fostered by the Allans. While there the Allans moved around a lot. They even moved to Europe at one point. After rent couldn’t be paid the Allans moved back to America. When Poe was a teenager he almost became a legend. He excelled at sports especially at swimming. There is even a legend of Poe swimming up the James River, against the tide. Beginning in 1826 Poe attended the University of Virginia. He did not last there long however because he was not able to pay for the schooling. This is because he was not being supported financially by John Allan, the father of the Allan family. Allan could have helped paid for Poe’s college because of an inheritance Allan got but did not on the fact that he had never officially adopt Poe. After being forced out of school, Poe returned to Boston and began to write. He only published one booklet before enlisting in the army. He served in the army until he was discharged because of the death of his foster mother, Frances Allan. After the death of Frances, Poe and Allan got into disagreements numerous times over many different subjects. After the death of Frances, Poe entered the US Military Academy at West Point. Poe was a very promising cadet at the acad... ... middle of paper ... ...in the storm as well. Poe was a smart man. He knew what his audience wanted. His audience wanted revenge thrillers. Poe wrote multiple stories that dealt with revenge and thrill but also these works were influenced by the Gothic writing style. Two of Poe’s most famous thriller stories were “A Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat”. Poe gives the audience thrill in these stories threw the way he uses details. Poe uses details to get the audience going. The way he describes the sound of the heart beat or the sound of the screech is what really gets the audience going. Poe is a perfect example of how an author’s life affects their work. All of the troubles he went through his life from his parents to his wife and his money problems to alcohol problem, can be seen in his works. Not only did his life affect what what he wrote but his awarity affected what he wrote.

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