Name: Paige Kramer

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

Vocabulary & Questions
Unburthen - To unburden; to unload.
Expound - to make a detailed statement; to explain;
interpret
Baroque - extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in
character or style; irregular in shape
Rigorous - severely exact or accurate; precise: rigorous
research
Inscrutability - not easily understood; mysterious;
unfathomable
Swooning - to faint; lose consciousness
Stupefied - crazy, magnificent, unbelievable, amazing
Docility - easily managed or handled
Sagacious - having or showing acute mental discernment
and keen practical sense; shrewd
Tinctured - to imbue or infuse with something.

1. Describe the narrator as a child and compare it to his life as

an adult. Use text evidence to support your answer.
The narrator was very fond of animals as a child. ...I was
indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets As he
grew older, he started to become addicted to alcohol. He would
get bothered by the smallest things such as when he felt that
the cat was avoiding him. I fancied that the cat avoided my
presence. I seized him... He then cut out the eyeball of his cat
for that reason. His temper grew rapidly every time something
small bothered him, and he then murdered his cat.
Pg #: 1 & 5

2. On what does he blame his evil ways? Use text evidence to

support your answer.
...he inflicted a sight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The
fury of a demon immediately possessed me. I knew myself no
longer. This shows how the man blames the cat for presenting
a demon upon him as the cat bit him. He couldnt control his
temper which caused him to in rage cut the eye out of the cat.
Pg #: 5
3. Describe Pluto. How do the narrator and his wife initially
react to him? Use text evidence to support your answer.
This latter was a remarkably beautiful animal, entirely black,
and sagacious to an astonishing degree. They claim to see the
cat as a beautiful creature. I alone fed him, and he attended
me wherever I went about the house. They felt a lot of love
from the cat and the cat really cared about them.
Pg #: 4
4. A. What does the narrator first do to harm Pluto?Use t ext
evidence to support your answer.
...grasped the poor beat by the throat, and deliberately cut one
of its eyes from the socket! This shows how the man first
harmed the cat but cutting its eyeball out of its socket.
Pg #: 5
B. Why do you think he does this?
I believe he did this because he was under the influence of
alcohol which after the cat had bothered him, his emotions
were probably very sensitive. He was already mad, and then
the cat bit him which blew him into rage. He was furious and in

the moment he just did what he brain was telling him to do

without questioning anything until after the fact.
C. How does Pluto react to him after this incident?Use t ext
evidence to support your answer.
The cat went about the house as usual, but, as might expected,
fled in extreme terror at my approach. This shows how the cat
was scared of him, and the cat was trying to avoid him because
of what he had done.
Pg #: 5
5. How does the narrator rationalize killing Pluto? Use text
evidence to support your answer.
He rationalized killing Pluto by stating that because the cat had
loved him he had to kill him because of an urge inside of him
..hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I
knew that in so doing I was committing a sin..
Pg #:6
6. What happens the night after the narrator kills Pluto?
The night after the man kills Pluto, the mans house sets on fire
and burns until it becomes nothing but the skeleton of a house.
7. What does he discover the next morning? What do you think
this indicates?
The man finds the walls of his room and on the plaster that had
not burned in the fire was the imprint of a cat with a rope tied
to its neck. I believe that this indicates that the cats spirit will
be after him because of the horrible sin he had committed.
8. How does the new cat differ from Pluto? What do you think
this trait symbolizes?Use text evidence to support your answer.
The new cat is different than Pluto because it has a white patch
of fur covering the whole region of its breast. Pluto had not a

white hair upon his whole body; but this cat had a large,
although indefinite splotch of white; covering nearly its whole
region of its breast. I believe this is supposed to represent the
new heart of the cat, that this cat will forgive him from his sin
that he had undergone with Pluto. It is like a reincarnated
version of Pluto who is the same, but its heart is fixed back
together from the how the man had caused his heart to break
when he possessed that he did not love him anymore.
Pg #: 8
9. Explain the circumstances concerning the murder of the
narrators wife. Use text evidence to support your answer.
The man evidently was trying to kill the cat, but his wife
stopped him, in which he was raging in anger and struck the
axe into the wife's brain instead. Goaded by the interference
into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her
grasp and buried the axe into her brain. She fell dead upon the
spot with a groan.
Pg #: 11
10. Compare The Black Cat to The Tell Tale Heart. Identify 3
things that are similar between the two stories.
1. Both men thought of a disturbing way to hide the body in
a way where no one would ever be able to find them.
2. At the end of each story, the men confessed because of
the secret boiling inside of them making them grow mad.
3. Both men killed something (cat/people) because they
were so obsessed over them.

RUBRIC

RL.8.3: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the
action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
Not Yet Meeting

Approaching Standard

Meeting Standard

Exceeding Standard

Struggled to identify
where particular lines
of dialogue or events in
a story or drama propel
the action, reveal
aspects of a character,
or cause a certain
decision to be made

Identified where particular

lines of dialogue or events in
a story or drama propel the
action, reveal aspects of a
character, or cause a certain
decision to be made, but did
not explain how.

Explained how
particular lines of
dialogue or events in a
story or drama propel
the action, reveal
aspects of a character,
or cause a certain
decision to be made

Explained how particular

lines of dialogue or events in
a story or drama propel the
action, reveal aspects of a
character, or cause a certain
decision to be made AND
supported an argument for
how this is important to the
overall story