Try It
After reading Poe's "The Black Cat," answer the questions in the game.
1.) In the first few paragraphs, the narrator provides the readers with some background information about himself. What does he most stress?
Answer: He has been suffering depression.
2.) Who is Pluto?
Answer: The narrator's cat.
3.) Describe the relationship between Pluto and the narrator.
Answer: They were close at first
4.) What was the first violent act the narrator did to Pluto?
Answer: He cut Pluto's eye out.
5.) What second act did the narrator commit on Pluto?
Answer: He hung Pluto from a rope and killed him.
6.) What was left of the narrator's home after the fire?
Answer: One wall with the figure of a cat on it was left.
7.) Describe the second cat.
Answer: This cat had a white mark on its chest.
8.) Describe the relationship between the second cat and the narrator.
Answer: He liked it, but soon grew to hate it.
9.) What peculiar mark did the cat have?
Answer: The cat had some white on its chest/breast area.
10.) Why did the narrator kill his wife?
Answer: She tried to stop him from killing the cat and he killed her in his rage.
11.) How did he dispose of the body?
Answer: He bricked it up in the chimney wall.
12.) Who came on the fourth day after the murder?
Answer: The police
13.) What was the narrator's reaction to the arrival?
Answer: He invited them in and showed them around the house.
14.) How did the police discover the body?
Answer: The narrator hit the wall that contained the body and the cat screamed from within.
15.) Which of these is the most important to Poe's purpose?
Answer: Examining the narrator's mental state.
16.) How does Poe allow the reader to become more immersed in the story?
Answer: He describes things in great detail.
17.) What value does using the first person narrative add to the story?
Answer: It allows the reader to see the workings of the narrator's mind.