Edgar Allen Poe

I think that Edgar Allen Poe’s writing is very interesting and mysterious.  It is different from other writers because I feel like to him there is nothing that is to over the edge.  I think that Poe would be willing to experiment with all different types of dark writings, in which he could scare others.  I think that he wrote these dark pieces because it was something that was different than what other people were writing.  No other people were willing or even wanted to write stories such as The Raven or the fall of the House of Usher.  However I think that Poe wrote these dark stories because of his background.  His mother and his wife both died in his lifetime.  He was not given the opportunity to live a long life with his wife.  His mother would also die in December, making Poe extremely sad.  I thin that is why he experiments with writing stories that are dark, and that deal with spirits or the after life.  I think he is fascinated by it, because all of the people that he loves are dead, and he wants to believe in some way that they are still alive or still around.  Poe is very lonely, and in the case of The Raven, I think he writes it to question the thought that there is actually no life after life on earth. He is very interested with what happens after our life on earth. 

What is an American?

I think that it is hard to define what it truly means to be an American.  After all, our country was made up of immigrants, and the majority of our citizens today are immigrants from other countries.  I think that when we define our selves or say where we are from, we are hesitant to say we are from America, because it is not truly were we originated.  We may feel obligated to say we are from a different portion of the world.  I think that it is very interesting to see how people will actually say they are from other regions of the world, or are a different nationality after they had lived in the U.S. all of their life.  I think people say they are a different nationality because that is the saying or term used to describe the U.S.  People call America a giant melting pot that contains all different types of races and nationalities.  To back that saying up, people describe themselves as some other nationality in order to support this important saying.  However I think that people should start to call themselves Americans, when asked who are they.  I think it is fair to give our country credit for what it has done.  America is its own nation, with a successful past, and people should respect that.  We have also been a nation for more than two hundred years now, so there have been many different generations of people to live in the United States of America.