ONE POE READER RESPONSE

THE TELL-TALE HEART

SUMMERY:This story is about a man who kills athis other old man beacuse he's tired of looking at his "evil eye". It starts of with the man telling the story about how he killed the old man. He tells us that he's not crazy for doing it, it's just that he was thinking too much about it. He wasn't mad, he was only nervous.He starts talking about how he planned everything out so presisely. Every night he practiced getting into the old man's bedroom. Then on the 8th night, he finally saw the evil eye. The old man had awakened when he heard a noise and it was the man holding a lantern. The old man's heart began beating faster and faster until he couldn't take it anymore. He pounced on the old man, afraid that the neighbors would hear his heart beating. The old man died and the other guy dismembered the old man's body and put in under the planks. When the police went to search, he got paranoid about the heart and told the police about his doings.

The most memorable part for me was when the part where he said that he shined the light right on to the old man's eye. I could picture it in my head with it being all dark and there's only a big blue eye shining. I guess I would be kind of bothered by that too. That's why I thought that was the most memorable part.
"I smiled - for what had I to fear?" (pg.7). I think this line represents the story because throughout the whole thing, the man was saying the he was calm and could talk about it without any problem. He said the he had done everything so carefully tha noone would know what had happened. He thought he had nothing to worry about, but in the end, his madness got the best of him.

MAiN CHARACTER: The main character of this story was the crazy guy that killed the old man. It was the narrator I guess you could say. He wasn't very normal when it came to what was going on in his head. He said that he wasn't crazy or anything like that, but you could tell he was. He said he was just nervous and anxious. I think he was just really paranoid.

"I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth" (pg.3). This line represents the character becasue it shows how paranoid he was. He heard a lot of things, but most of them were just in his head. He denied being crazy, so he said that it was just "acut hearing". That also proves he was crazy becuase he has all these excuses to show that he's not. He think that he's just really smart or something.

The motivation the main character has is the old man's evil eye. In the beginning, that's what causes him to want to kill him. He explains that he has nothing against the old man, it's just that his plae blue eye is the thing that bothers him. He also says that he didn't want to kill him, but he believed there was no other choice. There was no other way in which he could get ride of the eye unless he killed the old man. Then, when he's about to kill him he starts to hear the old man's heart beating. As it gets faster and faster, he can't stand it anymore, so that's when he finally kills him. So the beating heart was also a motivation for the main character to give in to the police and tell them about his crime.

TRANSPOSiTiON: If I was in charge of a studion and I had to make this short stroy into a film, I would make it into a horror film. The main character would be plated my tom Cruise. I picked him because I think he would do a really good job portraying the character, since he's kind of crazy himself. He'd be perfect to act as an insane guy that killed an innocent old man. The part of the old man would go to Robin Williams because he's an old man and he has blue eyes. The eye is a really big part of the story, so I think he'd be good. I wouldn't leave out anything becuse I think everything that happens is important to the story. I would add somethings though. Like I would add the part where someone calls the police to tell them about something strage they heard. I would also add some parts where the main character is narrating the story, but he's telling it from inside jail.

A WORD THAT DEFiNES ME

I think the word that defines me is COOL. It's a simple word, but I think that covers everything that I am. It means "fashionable and attractive at the time; often skilled or socially adept". That describes me pretty well. I'm sociable, really talkitive, and I find my self to me good looking, not to be conceded or anything. My definition of the word, if you're talking about a person is " someone you like to be around with that is outgoing, unpredictible, and good looking." Cool can mean anything depending on who's using it and in what way, but that's how I describe myself. A lot of my friends describe me like that too, so I think that's a good word for me.

TODAY iN HiSTORY

Today in my history class, I learned about the civilizations in Mesoamerica. I learned about the Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, and Incan civilizations. The Olmec were the 1st complex society. Their name means "rubber people" becuase they invented rubber. The Mayans were the most sophisticated society. They measured time using 2 systems. They had the solar calendar and the sacred calendar. The solar calendar had 365 days divided into 18 months each consisting of 20 days and at the end of the year they added 5 more days. The sacred calendar had 260 days, 20 months with 13 days each. They had very different thoughts about beauty. They prized flat foreheads and crossed eyes.They abandoned their cities for unknown reasons and their civilization declined. The Aztecs were a civilization in present day Mexico. They had a polytheistic religion, but their main god was Quetzalcoatl. They performed human sacrifices were they would rip out the heart of the person. Then they would cut of their head and roll the rest of their body down the temple. The Inca had a very strong political structure. They had the most powerful army around which consisted of about 20,000 warriors. Women had 2 options: get married or become a priestess. Their civilization declined when Francisco Pizarro took over. That's what I learned today in history.

A BOOK EVERYONE SHOULD READ...

HOUSE OF THE SCORPiON by Nancy Farmer
This story is about a young clone named Matt. He's the clone of a powerful drug lord named Matteo Alacran, also known as El Patron. Matt is being raised to provide spare organs to El Patron if he ever needs them. El Patron is running an opium-producing state. His workers are illegal immigrants who have been captured by the Farm Patrol. These illegals become mindless zombies called "eejits" after the Farm Patrol insert a chip into their heads. When El Patron dies, Matt inherits the state and it's now up to him to decide what to do with it.
I think everyone should read this book because it's full of excitement and you never know what's going to happen next. It's also cool if you like science fiction things because this book takes place in the near futur and there's clones and zombies and things like that. I also like it becuase it takes place in my home state of Durango. Overall though it's a really intersting story.