Edgar Allan Poe Essay

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...

... middle of paper ...

...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.