tell-tale heart.

Edgar Allan Poe's story is quite a masterpiece. It jumps between reality and fantasy. Some things are unclear, but left for the reader to figure out. One main thing that is never revealed is the relationship of the man and the narrator. They seem to be living in the same house, but it's not stated. I inferred that the narrator was just a worker for the man. Another thing that was left unrevealed was the reason for wanting to kill the man. All that was said was "the eye" bothered the narrator. It bothered him, also scared him, so much that he could not stand looking at it everyday. This reason triggered the death of the man. The last main thing left unsaid was if the heartbeat was real, or just in the narrator's head.
In the story, the narrator tells the reader that he is in fact normal, not "mad". According to the sequence of events, the reader can infer that there is a problem with the narrator. Nobody can hear everything in heaven and hell and still be considered a regular person. He does many crazy things that can lead to the idea that he is a mad man. The first thing is when he tries to plan a way to attack the man in the house. He spends an hour + just trying to open the door without waking the man. After that long time, he finally kills him and shreds him to pieces. Later in the story, the police begin investigating the house because they hear neighbors' complaints. At first, the narrator can reply to the questions asked by the police with ease and no stress. As he begins thinking deeper into the situation, the "heartbeat" grows louder and louder. At last it beats so loudly that he reveals the hiding place of the murdered man without the police pressing him to do so.
In my opinion, the heartbeat was not really there. That is why the police never asked him anything about it. The narrator, being the crazy man that he is, was just hallucinating and imagined the whole thing. If the narrator cut the man to pieces after he captured him, there is no way the man could have still been alive. Maybe the narrator was paranoid, maybe scared? The reader will never know for sure, but he/she can always infer. The story cuts off after the narrator reveals the "hideous heart" and leaves the reader thinking.

this is my bes fran

     The wonderful time of summer finally arrived after a long, hard year of eighth grade. My classmates and I figured we would never see each other again. Therefore, we tried to make a good end to our eight years together. Going to Six Flags Great America, Navy Pier, the Sears Tower, etc. brought us all very close to each other. However, after the summer, we eventually had to split up. After all the hugs and goodbyes, we went our separate ways.

     One girl, living relatively close to me, actually chose the same high school as me. Haley Thompson was her name. Sure enough, we were very excited to be attending school together for another couple years. Although I met her way back in fourth grade, I did not feel as close to her as we should have already been. At the beginning of the summer we promised each other we would hangout. As promised, we did. Almost everyday.

     Waking up during the first week of the summer was quite a difficult task. My dad would leave the house at the crack of dawn, so I never got to see him. My mom left me voicemails every morning, telling me the plan for the day. Sometimes I would have to clean the whole house before I could do anything else. Other times my mom would force me to do chores like clean her car, help my brother mow the lawn, and do everyone’s laundry. Obviously, me being myself, I was always too lazy to do most of my assignments. To get myself out of doing dirty housework, I would call my friend Haley.

     Haley and I did basically everything together during the summer. As soon as I woke up, I would call her. I would put on my shorts and tank, grab what I need for the day, and begin walking towards her house. Because her house is about a three minute walk, I got to see a few kids playing outside, some trees in full bloom here and there. As I would turn into her street, I would call Haley and make sure she is ready to go. Waiting around for Haley was never an issue because we were always super excited to leave and start our day together. She would come out of her house and we would sit down and begin planning.

     On some days it was very easy to figure out what to do. Other times, we would sit around for hours and do absolutely nothing. However, this was not a problem. Haley and I could be doing nothing, but still like being together. We enjoyed each others‘ company. One day we found a volleyball net kit, so we decided to build it. Haley, reading the instructions, let me know what to do. I would listen and follow what she said. Using the directions on the paper turned out to be too confusing. Haley and I decided to wing it and make the net using nothing but the pieces given. During this project, I was standing on the left side of her yard while she took the right side. I was tieing the net on the top to the poles leaning against her fence. Meanwhile, Haley was making sure the poles were supported well enough to withstand stronger winds and such. When the net was complete  and standing, Haley and I went on a hunt for a volleyball. We walked inside her house and searched the whole place for a ball. No luck. I figured my sister might own a volleyball, so we went all the way back to my house in hopes of finding one. Walking back to my house was quite a journey. On our way we saw a group of friends that we have not seen since the previous summer. After a whole year, we had plenty of stories to share and things to talk about. Alec, one of the boys in the group, decided we should all hangout. Haley and I exchanged a quick glance and told the boys to comeover after we found a volleyball. They all agreed, so we knew our plan for the rest of the day. We reached my house, I ran in and got the ball, and I ran back out. Haley and I began walking back to her house and discussing what to do with the boys for the day. Deep in conversation and thoughts, we did not even notice the dark clouds rolling in. As soon as we reached Haley’s house, the boys were already standing by the net we built earlier and requested to play a game against  us. Gladly, we accepted the challenge. We both took our shoes off and ran barefoot into the warm grass. The boys, trying to act intimidating, were arranging themselves on the other side of the net. Since Haley and I had been playing volleyball since fourth grade, we knew a few tricks that would surely make us win.

     The game began with a serve from one of the boys, Chris. Lucky for him, the ball made it over the net and Haley bumped it back. The boys on the other side all jumped for the ball at the same time, which did not benefit their team considering nobody ended up getting it. The next serve was mine. I took my time, bounced the ball a few times, and served it. After it reached the other side of the net, again, the boys started calling the ball and jumping for it at the same time. The whole first game went on in this manner. When Haley and I won, she suggested we go inside and grab some drinks for all of us. While we were inside making a fresh pitcher of kool-aid, the boys were outside yelling and teasing each other about not being able to beat us girls. Laughing to ourselves inside, Haley and I finished making the drinks. We came outside and handed the kool-aid out to everyone. The boys decided to play another game of volleyball to make the score even. They started out the game again, but this time Alec served the ball across the net. Haley handed it back to the other side. The second game lasted longer and was more exciting because everyone was pumped up. To make the boys feel better, Haley and I let them score points that could have easily been ours. Out of nowhere, Haley’s mom came outside and greeted us all. She asked us if we were hungry or needed anything, and then decided she would start up a barbeque in the backyard. After about ten minutes, she came back into the yard, rolling the grill out in back of the net. Haley, the boys, and I played the rest of our game until Haley’s mom finished making barbeque dinner. Before we could take out the lawn chairs so we could eat outside, Alec felt a raindrop from the sky. That is when we noticed the dark clouds and everyone began running into Haley’s house. Her mom collected all the food off the grill and put it on the kitchen table inside. We all sat around the kitchen, eating our dinners, and talking about big events from the past year. Catching up took hours of our time, while the rain poured outside. It was almost eleven o’clock at night when the rain came to a complete stop. That is when the boys all left and I got picked up by my mom. We said our goodbyes and thanks to Haley and her mom, and we filed out of the house. This was just one of our many fun summer days.