September 18, 2013
Crime & Mystery H
Mrs. Zamora
Period 1
Group Meeting #1
For our first group meeting we immediately went over all the discussion questions. Many challenging points were discussed especially when it came to the Tell-Tale Heart short story. Questions like “why did the narrator wait until the eighth night to kill the old man with the eye, instead of the first or second night?” and “Who do you think the narrator is telling this story too”? Some group members claimed the narrator waited so long to kill the old man because he was planning to kill him by watching him sleep every night. Also the group agreed that the narrator was possibly telling this story to the police or sanitarium and the story is a flashback. Another topic the group brought up was what the narrator was referring to as his disease in the first paragraph and how I thought the narrator may actually have a disease that heightens his sense. The other group member seemed to disagree as maybe the narrator’s disease is just insanity all together. Also a question the group discussed was why the narrator confessed to a crime he could have easily gotten away with. We all agreed that the narrator's paranoia over the sound of the beating heart is what made him/her confess to the crime, because he/she thought the policemen in the house would hear it too. Along with discussion of the questions we also talked about the overall oddness of the story, especially how the narrator introduced himself and also how he told the story. He told the story very calmly but seemed very self-conscious about not seeming crazy. In the end the narrator just seemed to be very weird from all of his/her actions. The group agreed this whole story was very mysterious and the narrator was definitely not sane. The next story the group discussed was “The Cask of Amontillado” and this story was more laid-back but also passively cruel. One question that challenged the group was why did Montresor decide