Poe, Hamby, Browning, and Hoagland

With having different themes and languages, the only thing these four works had in common was that they were all told in the first person. The author in all, giving very vivid images and making there points clear for the reader. 

In "The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allen Poe writes about Montresor's revenge on Fortunato, and how he didn't just punishes him for the insults, unknown to the audience, but humiliated him for them. Poe leaves many fact like how Fortunato insulted the narrator and the exact place of where this occurred from the audience to give the story more of a mysterious feeling to the reader. He has Montresor use extreme deception, to lure Fortunato down to his catacombs without any suspicion. On the contrary Montresor tricks Fortunato into wanting and even opting to have Montresor take him to his catacombs.Poe makes this theme of revenge well known throughout the whole work and even brings in his own idea of what revenge should really be about, humiliating the person for wronging you. 

In "Ode to American English" by Barbara Hamby, the narrator talks about how he misses the american slang and all things american. He gives many examples of how compared to British English, America uses a vast variety of words incorrectly but how the author is more impressed and intrigued with it. Being extremely impressed on how americans' put many things into our own language so we can understand it, exaggerating by using the Bible as an example. The narrator makes his reader think back to what they know about the american culture, making them laugh and actually think about how much of what he says is true. It's not completely sure whether the narrator is actually putting these examples under good light or just being sarcastic but makes a good point of how america is one of a kind. 

In "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning, the narrator tries to persuade someone that he was a loving husband, who loved his wife even with her defiance and disrespectfulness. He talks about a vividly paint picture of his belated wife and describes how no stranger would be able to picture her nature as it really was. he uses many metaphors and examples of his past wife's disrespectfulness. 

In "America" by Tony Hoagland, he talks about how a student speech talking about all the negative things about america was a revelation for him. At first the narrator is very insulted by all that the other student has to say, disagreeing but at the end realizing many of the things said were very accurate.  He than changes from what the student is talking about to going off on a scatter brain of what is wrong about America. He uses a metaphor of him being "asleep" and uses an example of toning out all the problems of the world. 

All these relate to problems that americans and loyola students are awakened to everyday. All people use the American English that Hamby speaks about in his poem. Many of us over look the the problems of the world mentioned in Hoagland's poem. Revenge, who hasn't tried or thought of getting revenge on those who hurt us. Here at loyola though we are taught that revenge isn't the answer and that it is the wrong plan of action.