March 13, 2013

Out of the two readings this week I would have to say between “Hills like White Elephants” and “Cask of Amontillado” I would have to choose the second,  “Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe.  Having read this story several times before in early high school and in middle school I still seem to pick up details I never read into before. Poe tends to take your attention right from the get go in his story’s with an emotion grabbing opening that wants you to read further. The hidden detail that Poe often includes tends to often foreshadow what is to come.  This is a great tool to use to predict the events to come in the reading. For instance when Motresor relieves his servants for the night in order to vacate the catacombs.  This foreshadows what we later find out to be the demise of Fortunato.  The simple things like the setting weather it is at the carnival or in the catacombs with skulls and bones it all ultimately foreshadows what is to come as Poe continues.  Poe’s unique writing style has definitely caught my eye over the years and has definitely become one of the writers I continue to read.  This reading was defiantly my favorite of the week even though “Hills like White Elephants” did challenge me with symbolism.   

~Jonathan Gardner