Poe stories

     1.  “’Let us follow your thoughts from the fruit-seller to the play-actor, Chantilly. Those thoughts must have gone like this: from the fruit-seller to the cobblestones, from the cobblestones to stereotomy, and from stereotomy to Epicurus, to Orion, and then to Chantilly. “As we turned into this street the fruit-seller, walking very quickly past us, ran against you and made you step on some cobblestones which had not been put down evenly, and I could see that the stones had hurt your foot. You spoke a few angry words to yourself, and continued walking. But you kept looking down, down at the cobblestones in the street, so I knew you were still thinking of stones. “Then we came to a small street where they are putting down street stones which they have cut in a new and very special way…We were talking about how much those old ideas are like today’s ideas about the earth and the stars and the sky. I felt sure that you would look up to the sky. You did look up. Now I was certain that I had been following your thoughts as they had in fact come into your mind. I too looked up, and saw that the group of stars we call Orion is very bright and clear tonight. I knew you would notice this, and think about the name Orion’” (Poe 40).

At first I thought the story was turning into some science fiction when Dupin guessed what the narrator was thinking about. However, his sequence of thoughts actually seemed quite logical if you think about it in his perspective. Though there were a lot of references to things they spoke about or found in newspapers, if we consider that those were memorable conversations they had, it seemed pretty reasonable for Dupin to guess the narrator’s train of thought, especially when his thoughts were constantly affirmed by his actions, such as looking at the cobblestones and looking up at the sky. This was pretty impressive to me and was a great introduction to Dupin’s character since it revealed his impressive observation and deduction skills.

       2.   “I do not know it. I am not sure of it. I think the man is a sailor. A sailor could go up that pole on the side of the house. Sailors travel to strange, faraway places where such things as orangutans can be got. If I am right….” (Poe 58).

I think that Dupin’s conclusion that the person who was with the orangutan is a sailor is pretty far-fetched. Though it is true that sailors may be good at climbing and do travel a lot, it was strange how he came to that conclusion and was sure enough to put it on his post. There are many other people who are strong enough or agile enough to climb the pole and also travel a lot, so it was strange how that conclusion came up, and because it was such a critical detail, the unreasonable deduction sort of detracted from the story.

        3.     “’Why - it did not seem altogether right to leave the interior blank - that would have been insulting. D-, at Vienna once, did me an evil turn, which I told him, quite good humoredly, that I should remember. So, as I knew he would feel some curiosity in regard to the identity of the person who had outwitted him, I thought it a pity not to give him a clue. He is well acquainted with my MS., and I just copied into the middle of the blank sheet the words

Un dessein si funeste, S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste.

They are to be found in Crebillon's 'Atrée’" (Poe 18).

              I was very confused at the ending of the Purloined Letter. It seems to maybe be a location of where the letter is but it is left largely unexplained, and the sequence of words in another language increases my curiosity and mystery of what he actually said. After some searching it seems like a translation to some sort of story.