Which of the three stories did I like best? A question worthy of an answer because this question is one that will make me ponder my decision. Maybe a lack of interest in the complexity of the narrative. Maybe an absence of extraordinary or Herculean figures in the tales to be told is the reason for my fading attentiveness. Maybe my own simple-mindedness is the reason I loathed to read the stories. Admittedly, I did not enjoy any of the three, but if I were to choose just one to reign supreme over the others, it would have to be Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat”.

The Black Cat was the shortest of the three stories, and the one with the most rapidly changing emotions in character. It was as if the main character’s emotions were playing tug-of-war. The main character knew that what he was doing, and what he has already done was wrong, yet he maintained his perverse behavior. The narrator whom is also the main character of the story also resonated with me a bit. He was suffering from alcoholism which would then in turn classify him as a vulnerable person. Being that my major is Human Services, it is my duty to help the vulnerable populations.

The thing that I liked the most about this story, is the fact that the narrator was doing wrong for the wrong’s sake. He would make a pretty good villain in other stories. I love reading Shonen manga, and rarely do you find a villain who is evil for the sake of being evil, and when you do find such characters, the characters are always bland with no depth to them at all. I like the stark contrast between who the narrator used to be, and what he has become. I also like the fact that his egotistical overconfidence was the cause of his downfall. To be defeated by your sworn enemy, your tormentor, the arch-fiend itself, whom was previously powerless before you; how ironic indeed.