Have you ever wondered what makes an ordinary individual become a murder? What causes someone to steal God's role and take someone's life like it is their right? In the short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe, the transformation of a loving man, to an individual who hangs his house cat and gruesomely murders his wife is seen. Although this transformation can be seen on the surface of his writing, we can see a deeper meaning by looking through his words and dissecting different elements of his writing style. Edgar Allen Poe uses specific word choice, symbolism, and sentence structure to provide further detail of the psychological transformation of the main character in "The Black Cat". 

When communicating, the words an individual chooses to use when delivering an idea says a lot about his or her maturity and intelligence. For example, if someone swears a lot when they talk, they often come across as immature and uneducated. However, if someone speaks well by using a wide range of vocabulary, they are often seen as a more well-rounded individual. Similarly, in a story, the words an author chooses to use often creates a certain mood or tone. When looking into word choice used in "The Black Cat", a shift in mood is seen simply by the change of vocabulary that is used. In the beginning of the story specifically, the narrator uses words like "faithful", "friendship", and best of all "tenderness of heart" all in the second paragraph (Poe 1). These words create a welcoming atmosphere because when spoken they create a sense of peacefulness in the reader. However, looking at the progression of the vocabulary throughout the story, a change can be seen in the tone of the narrator. Paragraph 20 is a major turning point in the story in terms of the mood caused by the change in word choice. In this paragraph words such as "terror", "destroyed", "loathed", and "death" all have a very vulgar tone when spoken and not only create create a dark and frightening atmosphere, but also portray the narrator as angry and threatening (Poe 4,5). One word in particular in paragraph 20 that was foreign to me was chimaera, which was used in the middle of the paragraph to create a relationship with his house cat. After researching this word, I found that it is rooted in Greek mythology and represents a lion with a goat's head coming out if its back and a snake as its tail. This comparison makes me question the sanity of the narrator because he is comparing his house cat to a mythological creature that breathes fire. The evolution of his word choice from pleasant and loving to threatening and evil shows a definite psychological transformation because he changed from a compassionate individual to someone who thinks every situation is driven by evil. Poe isn't just able to make us question the sanity of the reader through vocabulary, but he also uses symbolism to force the reader to look for a deeper meaning. 

In the second half of the twentieth paragraph, the narrator describes a patch of white hair on the black cat that he had found and brought back to his home. He describes this patch by saying "The reader will remember this mark, although, large, had been very indefinite; but, by slow degrees ...  it had, at length, assumed a rigorous distinctness of outline ...  of the GALLOWS!" (Poe 5). This quote can be aimed at explaining two things, firstly to show the psychological transformation of the narrator as well as the reason why he sees the white spot change shape into gallows. This quotation symbolizes the psychological transformation in the narrator because it is the first time in the story that he creates certain physical qualities that don't actually exist. Although a change in his mental stability is seen when he hangs his cat and then sees it burnt into the wall when he returns the next morning after his house caught fire. I believe that his claim of the changing spot of hair symbolizes a full transformation because before this, his hateful actions were out of anger, but since he is now in a cell where he is to be hung, he begins applying his fate to the story he is telling, showing a loss of reality. The last element that 

Poe implements to create a deeper meaning is the change of sentence structure throughout the course of the short story. 

You know you are in trouble when your significant other simply sends you "K" or even worse "k.". This lack of energy put into communication shows anger, frustration, disappointment and all varieties of negativity. Often times when we are feeling this way we are very short with people and is fairly easily understood. However, when we really want to talk with someone we talk in longer, more detailed sentences to show that we care about the conversation we are participating in. Poe utilizes this common practice in his short story. Towards the beginning, the narrator uses fairly long and wordy sentences to show the reader he cares about what he is talking about. However, as the story progresses, a change is seen in writing style, specifically in the 20th paragraph when he says " ...  and would have rid myself of the monster had I dared  --  it was now, I say, the image of hideous  --  of a ghastly thing  --  of the GALLOWS!" (Poe 5).  The use of hyphens creates very choppy dialogue which allows the reader to not only see his feelings through word choice, but also get a deeper meaning into how the narrator feels by relating his expression to language we are accustomed to seeing on a day to day basis. This also shows his psychological transformation because his speech resembles that of a schizophrenic. He is talking in a very paranoid and anxious tone which is very different than the tone he used at the beginning of the story. 

When reading novels, short stories, and other literary pieces a like, we often focus on reading the words and establishing an overall meaning of the text. We usually only look into the deeper meaning of poems because throughout our years of schooling we have been taught that when reading poems, we need to look for a deeper meaning and read between the lines. After reading "The Black Cat", I learned that it is important to read through the text of any literary work because there is often more than just meets the eye. Throughout the story Poe is able to use symbolism, a variety of word choice, and combinations of sentence structures to illustrate the psychological transformation of the main character by giving the reader further insight into how the narrator truly feels.   

