Lessons Learned

“The Premature Burial”- Edgar Allen Poe

The medical condition that Poe describes in this story sounds very similar to a coma. Do I believe that people just naturally fall in and out of comas? No, that would be highly unlikely. For someone to completely drift out of consciousness without a pulse or any signs of life for weeks maybe even months just seems to far-fetched to be real. One could not sustain life (hydration and nourishment considered) throughout this period of time without a feeding tube or a catheter. But, this is fiction and I’m sure in a sense that Poe was just “stretching the truth”. Although the part about the batteries giving a “shock” to the pectoral muscles, that is a very outdated version of the common defibrillator!(you know, the thing they use when doctors yell “CLEAR” and shock you with paddles”. I thought that this was super cool! I had no idea how far back this medicine dated and it was awesome that it was featured in a piece of popular American literature.

“The Monkey’s Paw” – W.W. Jacobs

This story explores themes that are very common in the sci-fi genre today. Similar stories and ideas are explored in pieces such as “Button, Button”- Richard Matheson (1970) and “Genius of Christianity” – François-Rene de Chateaubriand (1802). The story is very clearly supernatural due to a few occurrences. 1. Whenever the Monkey’s Paw is wished upon, it twists and slivers in the user’s hand. This would not be scientifically possible due to the fact that it is mummified and not connected to anything. 2. Whatever wish you command, will come true. The means how they will is up to the Paw. This story goes off of the idea that objects cannot just come out of thin air. The time continuum must be altered in order for the wish to be granted by “realistic” means. 3. At the end of the story there is a VERY STRONG hint made to the reader that alludes to the fact that the White’s son has come back from his grave becoming the “living dead”. 4. The story’s element of supernatural interference is once again confirmed when the reader is lead to believe that Mr. White used his final wish to send his son back to the grave. I do not believe that there could really be a secondary explanation for these occurrences that does not include the supernatural. Sure, the machine accident could have been fate or chance. The knocks on the door could have been a trick of the mind or just a mouse on the stairs like Mr. White said. But, there is no way to get past the fact that Mr. White SWORE he could feel the paw move when he wished.

 

““The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” – Edgar Allen Poe “The Premature Burial”