The Black Cat

My story is told from the perspective of a man who is about to be put to death. He explains how he is a very kind and gentle hearted person. He takes great pleasure in showing affection to other people and animals, so much so that his friends tease him for it. He calls this affection his “distinguishing trait”. He met his wife at a young age and they got married at a young age. She was a very kind hearted person too, so naturally, they had a lot of pets. They had a monkey, a dog, fish, birds, and a very large black cat. The narrator liked the cat especially. Pluto (the cat) was intelligent. Pluto took a liking to the narrator, probably due to the fact that he was the only one who took care of it. The narrator, an impoverished soul, was prone to taking up a drink every now and then to ease his troubled mind (much like the author of this story (Edgar Allan Poe) coincidence maybe?) and naturally his temper got a little worse. In short, the narrator started to mistreat his pets, then he started to beat his pets, then the narrator started to mistreat his wife, and beat her too. Pluto was (because he was the narrators best friend) spared for a while.

Sensing the narrator’s recent moods and witnessing the abuse of the other animals in the home, Pluto decided to avoid his master one night after he had spent a particularly long night at the local bar. The narrator doesn’t like this very much and attacks Pluto like an attention deprived girlfriend who has reached her breaking point. Pluto, not able to do anything else and probably relying on instinct alone, sinks his teeth into his master’s flesh. The narrator likens what happens next to a demon possessing him. In an uncontrollable fury, he takes out a pocket knife and carves Pluto’s eye o...

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...his wife’s body into the opening then reassembles the wall back where it was. He doesn’t see the cat again after he rebuilds the wall. After a few days the police come out and search every place in the house. As they’re about to leave the narrator feels so proud of himself for getting away with his crime that he brags about how solid the walls are. He taps on the exact spot that his wife is buried in, and suddenly the wall starts emitting a high pitched inhuman wailing. The police (probably thinking the wife was in there) tear down the wall to find not only the cat, but the narrator’s brained wife lying peacefully in her eternal slumber.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Black Cat." Online Literature. Jalic Inc., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2013.

"Biography of Edgar Allan Poe." Poestories.com. Design 215 Inc., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. .