Fiction

Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet and short-story writer.

Reading Information Text (11-12.10)

By the end of grade 11, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Let's Practice: Key Terms

Section A: Fiction

A fiction text is literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and poems. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is an example of a short story fiction book.

Fiction contains certain symbolic and thematic features known as “literary merits.” In other words, fiction narrates a story, which aims at something more significant than merely a story. In this attempt, it comments on something meaningful related to social, political, or human-related issues.

Fiction may be based on stories of actual historical events. Although fictitious characters are presented in a fictitious setting in stories and novels, they may have some resemblance to real-life events and characters. Writers alter their characters very skillfully when they take them from actual life.

The function of fiction is to entertain, educate, and inspire the readers and the audience. Literature in general, and fiction in particular, is capable enough to sweep our emotions. Fiction gives the audience an experience beyond their daily lives. It provides them an insight into the life of the characters, their manners, and events related to them.

*Elements of Fiction*
Theme	a universal message that is the central ideas of work in literature	Conflict	The central problem in a story
First Person - Point of View	The narrator tells the story from their point of view	Imagery	The descriptive language that appeals to the readers five senses
Plot	Significant events in a story that explain what the story is about	Foreshadowing	The author provides hints to the reader to suggest that something will happen later in the plot
Tone	Words are chosen by the author to describe a character, setting or event in a story	Flashback	The narrator leaves the present and tells a story that happened in the past
Main Idea	The summary that explains what the story is about	Suspense	The anxiety and excitements about what will happen next in a story
Mood	The feeling and emotions a reader gets while reading a story	Irony	*Dramatic irony: when the reader knows more than the characters know Verbal irony: when a character says something but means the opposite Situational irony*: when the opposite what the reader expects to happen occurs

Let's Practice: Video Quiz

Section B: Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author best known for his dark and ominous short stories and poems. Poe experienced tragedy in his life. He was born into poverty, and his father was an alcoholic who left when Edgar was young. His mother died of tuberculosis, and his foster mother and his wife died.

Edgar Allan Poe’s prolific writing career included 70 poems, 66 short stories, and one novel. Edgar Allan Poe is considered an author of Gothic literature. He gained worldwide fame for his dark, macabre tales of horror, practically inventing the genre of Gothic Literature. The term Gothic fiction refers to a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic factors, such as nature, individuality, and very high emotion

Many of Poe’s works have been adapted for film and television. Actor Vincent Price and director Roger Corman teamed up for six adaptations between 1960 and 1965, including movie versions of short stories like “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of the Red Death,” as well as the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Poe believed that a perfect story should be readable in one sitting, that it should be a tightly controlled, highly compressed narrative that hit on topics to which everybody can relate. The short story of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is an excellent example of Poe's theory of writing.

Let's Practice: Video Challenge

Section C: The Tell-Tale Heart

The Tell-Tale Heart, a short Gothic horror story by Edgar Allan Poe, published in The Pioneer in 1843. This story starts without hesitation: a nameless person explaining that he is and was extremely nervous, but is not and was not insane. The narrator claims he has a "disease," which makes all his senses—especially his hearing—super-sensitive.

Characters
The Narrator	Nervous, paranoid, mentally ill, does not know the difference between real and unreal
The Old Man	Has blue eyes and the narrator is afraid of him; sound sleeper
The Three Policemen	Don’t have any characteristics; they do play a significant role in driving the plot of the narrator’s story
A Neighbor	A small role but essential role; shows us that the narrator and old man are alienated from the community

Read and Listen “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Let's Practice: Narrator Timeline and Summary