ANSWER KEY: SHORT ANSWER STUDY QUESTIONS - The Black Cat
Autor: Teacher Thiago | Publicado: 2012-11-26T15:15:00-02:00



ANSWER KEY: SHORT ANSWER STUDY QUESTIONS - The Black Cat









1. In the first few paragraphs, the narrator gives us some background
information about himself. What does he most stress?

He stresses that he is not mad, that
he is a common, ordinary, mild-mannered individual capable of reason. Since the
events of this story, he has become irrational and excitable.



2. Who was Pluto?

Pluto is the narrator's cat.



3. Describe the
relationship between Pluto and the narrator.

At first, they are very close; the
narrator is very fond of the cat. Then, because the narrator has a bit of an
alcohol problem, the relationship changes.



4. What was the first
violent act the narrator did to Pluto?

He cut the cat's eye out.



5. What second act
(the narrator describes as being done in the spirit of perverseness) did he commit on Pluto?

He hanged the cat by a rope from a
tree and killed it.



6. On the night the
narrator killed Pluto, what happened to his home?

His house burned down leaving only
one wall with a figure of a cat with a rope around its neck.



7. Describe the second
cat.

The second cat looked very much like
Pluto except it had a white mark on its neck.



8. Describe the
relationship between the second cat and the narrator.

At first the narrator liked it and
was kind to it, but he grew to dislike it and eventually hated it. He
would have killed it, but he feared it.



9. What peculiar mark
did the cat have?

He had some white on his neck/breast
area. The narrator began to think it looked like gallows.



10. Why did the
narrator kill his wife?

He just about tripped over the cat
and was ready to kill it with an axe when his wife grabbed his arm and stopped
him. Instead of killing the cat, in his rage, he killed his wife.



11. How did he dispose
of the body?

He bricked her up in a false chimney
wall.



12. Who came on the
fourth day after the murder?

The police arrived.



13. What was the
narrator's reaction to the police?

He invited them in -- even took them
to the basement.



14. How did the police
discover the body?

In his over-confidence, the narrator
hit the wall behind which was the body. The cat screamed from within, giving
away the hiding place.



15. Where is the
climax of the story?

The climax of the story is when the
cat screams from behind the wall informing the police about the narrator's
murdering his wife.



16. Which is more
important to Poe's purpose: the murders or the revealing of the narrator's mental state?

The murders are just the events by
which we are allowed to examine the narrator's mind.

Examining the narrator's mental
state is most important.



17. Why is the setting
of the story vague?

The setting is not very important to
the story; it is a story of psychology. It is also a story of effect. Because
the reader has to use his/her imagination to fill in any gaps Poe leaves, he
becomes more immersed in the story and the effect of the story will be greater.



18. What value does
using the first person narrative add to the story?

It allows us to see the workings of
the narrator's mind and it also makes us closer to the story (thus making the
effect of the story greater).



19. "Have we not
a perpetual inclination . . . to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand
it to be such?" Answer Poe's rhetorical question.

(The answer here is a matter of
opinion. The purpose of the question is just to get students to think
-- to form an opinion about a question.)