The Black Cat Substance Abuse

In the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is a murderous villain. Drinking to an extent can make a person very violent towards other people. It is clear to say that he has major issues and feels no remorse for the murders he has committed. The narrator is losing his sanity. The reason behind the narrator’s excessive drinking of alcohol can negatively affect him and his decisions. His repetitive drinking caused him to become violent towards his wife and animals, which then lead to their murders in cold blood. In “The Black Cat”, the narrator informs us that he is going to die the next day. He is writing the story from his jail cell stating that he does not expect us to believe anything he states. From our perspective, the narrator is a nice and pleasant guy who enjoys animals. As stated in the text, “My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets.” (Poe par.2). The narrator eventually married a woman who yearns animals as …show more content…
During one night, the narrator returns home from a party and was heavily intoxicated. Assuming Pluto did not want to hang out with him, the narrator snatched the cat and gouged his eye out with a penknife. After that horrific night, the narrator was scared about the act he committed, so he hung Pluto from a tree in his backyard as a defense mechanism. The same night, the narrator’s house burned down but luckily everyone survived. When he returned the next day to see the leftovers, one thing caught his attention. On a surviving wall, he witnesses the figure of a cat with a rope placed around it’s neck. As stated in the text, “When I first beheld this apparition—for I could scarcely regard it as less—my wonder and my terror were extreme.” (Poe par.