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Edgar Allan Poe Essay

analytical Essay
889 words
889 words
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Greatness is not something that you are born with; it is something that you obtain. Many people have the power to be great. The simplest way to define how a person is great is by what they did. People who are of significant importance or are outstanding are great because they are known for their contributions. For instance, Edgar Allan Poe is a great man. He is a great and amazing individual for how he had contributed to literature. He is vastly known for his literature and poems that have lived for many years after he pasted. He was an awesome critic, so much so that people would ask him to revise their work whether it be poetry, a novel they had been working on, or any written piece of work. Poe is considered great because if it weren’t for him, our world would be without detective genre. Edgar Allan Poe can be looked at as great through his work, the life he lived, and how he died.

His work

Poe’s work and his introduction into detective genre have contributed greatly to the world of literature. He is sometimes considered one of the earliest writers of science fiction after October 14th, 1844 when Poe had made up a story in the New York Sun about an adventurer flying across the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air balloon (“Uncovering Edgar Allan…” 1). Most of his work usually involves science references. “Poe’s knowledge of science and engineering probably came from his studies at West Point where he was a cadet in 1830” (1). For example, Poe’s “The Murders in Rue Morgue” had a scene where the Sherlock Holmes-type character stares at the Orion nebula, now known as a birthplace of new stars and new solar systems (1). His work is not only based on science references, Edgar Allan Poe is a most influential figure for modern European lite...

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...m like an exciting one, but because of the sheer fact he existed, we can be thankful for The Raven, The Fall of The House of Usher, The Masque of Red Death, and The Pit and The Pendulum, a few of his pieces. Mr. Poe had inspired many people after his death to write and find their deepest interests in literature. If a person can inspire hundreds after death, they deserve the title “great”. Since Edgar Allan Poe impacts generations, he is great. This world is filled with great people, with Poe being one out of a million, that will surface and make themselves known. One day, in the near future, we will know that we all have the potential to be a great person. “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves” says another well-known great individual, Mahatma Gandhi.

In this essay, the author

  • Explains that people who are of significant importance or are outstanding are great because they are known for their contributions. edgar allan poe is considered great for his work, life, and death.
  • Explains that edgar allan poe's work and his introduction into detective genre have contributed greatly to the world of literature.
  • Explains that edgar allan poe was born in boston, massachusetts, on january 19th, 1809. his parents were traveling actors and his father mysteriously disappeared after his birth. after his mother died, he became an alcoholic.
  • Explains that edgar allan poe's death theories include: beating, murder, rabies, carbon monoxide poisoning, porphyria, delirium tremens, alcohol dehydrogenase, diabetes, epilepsy, hypoglycemia, dipsomania, and toxic disorder.
  • Describes how the man was found semi-conscious and delirious outside a polling place. the cause of his death four days later was listed as ‘congestion of the brain’ though the circumstances have never been fully explained.
  • Narrates how a man found edgar a. poe that night and when he stumbled upon him, wrote to the doctor that had read: "baltimore city, oct. 3rd, 1849"
  • Analyzes how poe's death can be considered great since there is no actual proof of how he died.
  • Opines that edgar allan poe's short life inspired many people to write and find their deepest interests in literature. the world is filled with great people that will surface and make themselves known.
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