Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat Theme Analysis Essay Example

Why is it that certain people perpetrate horrific crimes and do not feel contrition for their measures of violence? All over the world, people commit evil actions and yet feel no remorse for them. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat,” Poe teaches us about the narrator and his struggles with remorselessness in killing both animals and people. Still prominent today, in the 21st century, this theme is relevant for people like Jesse Osborne, who plotted to kill dozens of elementary school students. 

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Black Cat,” provides an imperative reminder that not all people are satisfactory and many people are not what they seem. In the story, the narrator tortured his main companion one night when he arrived home intoxicated by “grasp[ing] the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut[ting] one of its eyes from the socket!” (Poe). The horror that was represented was purposeful, aggressive, and showed no doubt about the hateful actions that caused him to do such a thing. Similarly, when the narrator's wife got in the way of him killing the reincarnated revenge-seeking cat, he “withdrew [his] arm from her grasp and buried the [ax] in her brain,” (Poe). Furthermore, while some crimes are represented with a sense of passion, the narrator of this story knew the act of cruelty he was committing at the time.  Horrifyingly, Poe’s biggest truth is that people do not frequently regret even their most hateful crimes, like murder. 

In today’s society, people still commit evil acts like murdering elementary school children, and most often do not feel remorse for these horrendous actions. In the article, “School shooter sentencing: South Carolina teen killed one student, plotted to kill dozens,” that USA Today posted, Jesse Osborne, a 14-year-old South Carolinian at the time, went to an elementary school planning to kill multiple students. On September 28th, 2019, during recess, Osborne committed the crime and later told police officers that “he would have killed more people, but the gun jammed” (Mayo). Jesse successfully killed his father and Jacob Hall, a 6-year-old child, while he also attempted to murder two students and a first-grade teacher. When he was talking with law enforcement after the incident, he had no regrets. Also explained in the article, he “planned the shooting for at least six days prior” and he asked questions on Instagram about where he should “shoot up” and shared how he was planning on “kill[ing] around 50 or 60” children (Mayo). Osborne was unfortunately just one of many people whose lives are consumed by wicked efforts. For a person to do something this frightening, they have to be incapable of feeling any remorse. Even in our lives nowadays, many people are filled with such hatred to the point they feel they need to commit an inhumane act, this of which was striving to kill innocent children playing at recess. 

Acts of violence are sometimes committed with a person feeling no regret for said actions. Horror and terror fill the lives of those reading short stories and articles like these two examples of literary pieces. Some people are impotent in feeling remorse, regret, or sorrow over the actions they commit because it is truly who the person is at their core. There must be an adjustment in the mindset and behavior of the future generation if a change is wanted in the world and if people want terrifying incidents to ultimately be stopped.