There are numerous ways to write a story. It is up to the author how he/she wants to portray their story and write in specific tones that reveals to the reader whether it is meant to be read dripping with distain, or read in a gleeful way. In both Updike’s A&P and Poe’s The Black Cat, the use of language in these stories largely determine the impression the reader obtains about the main characters. In both of these short stories, they are written in first person point of view, the narrators are the main characters.
In Updike’s short story, A&P uses narrative in the traditional sense n which the main character narrates a sequence of events. Sammy the narrator in A&P is generally a witty boy who is just trying to get by his summer job. Updike uses the character of an immature teenage boy to show an unsure attitude towards women and the growth into adulthood. This illustration is a common theme among adolescent males in society today. Updike is able to relate this to his readers through a young, growing boy, Sammy.?
At the beginning of the story the narrator, Sammy, describes three young girls, wearing “nothing but bathing suits” (pg. ) who enters the dull atmosphere of the local A & P. Sammy notices these three beauties immediately. His brief distraction causes him to make an error in cashing out the order of an unpleasant old woman. Sammy describes this cash- register-watcher as “a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows” who “starts giving me hell” (pg. 7).
This contrast between the beauty and sparkle of the young girls and the ugliness of the A & P and its traditional customers sets the stage for Sammy’s ultimate disgust.? After escribing further the attractive appearance of the girls, especially “the queen” who “walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs” (pg. 7) with the straps of her bathing suit down (something Sammy takes special note of) the setting of the story is described further. From Sammy’s point of view the A & P is a very traditional, predictable place, filled with traditional, predictable people.
These people are called “sheep” and “house slaves” (pg. 8) by the young narrator, testifying to their painful conformity. In fact, they are so used to the dull routine that at first they barely notice the striking young women who have captured Sammy’s attention. This leads him to observe that “you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists” (pg. 8). As one may already know, first person narration can be used in many different ways.
In Updike’s piece, we could clearly portray a dull environment that Sammy lived in, showing us what his life was like. However, in Poe’s short story, The Black Cat is a scary piece. He uses first person narration to make our skins crawl by allowing us to experience the horrifying events the story portrays. Poe’s use of point of view, symbolism, foreshadowing, and theme all combine with what he calls “a series of mere household events” to show how the narrator is driven into madness. The narrator step by step describes how he began drinking and then to abandon his dearly beloved cat and his wife.
Poe writes this story from the perspective of the narrator, a man hose character is changed through alcohol. By telling the story from the first person point of view, readers get the feeling that they are only going to learn about what the narrator wants them to know and that they might not learn the whole truth. Although, this point of view is one sided we still learn a lot about the narrator’s feelings towards his cat, but we learn almost nothing about his feelings towards his wife. We find that the narrator is sensitive and has a strong love for animals.
We learn that his avorite animal was his black cat, and we also learn how his attitude changes after he starts drinking. Telling the story from the first person point of view strengthens the effect of moral shock and horror. We might argue that what the narrator calls “perverseness” is actually conscience. Guilt about his alcoholism seems to the narrator the “perverseness” which causes him to torture and kill the first cat. Guilt about those actions indirectly leads to the murder of his wife who had shown him the gallows on the second cat’s reast.
First person narration I feel is the best way to write a story. For it is more intense and I feel like with first person narration, there is a sense that you can connect with the narrator more for you’re reading their story happening through their eyes. I feel that both Updike and Poe did an excellent job portraying the narrator in their stories. They both portrayed the characters well as well as their usage of language that set the tone of the piece, as though you are right there in the story experiencing everything yourself.