Abstract In this paper, the author examines the use of symbolism in "The Fall of the House of Usher" and the themes that run throughout the story. The paper takes a look at the the duality of the house which comes to represent family and home.
From the Paper "The genre of Romanticism is essential to cultural and literary history; its popularity can be attributed to humanity's fascination with the dark and unknown and also its profound interest in the pain and downfall of others. Edgar Allan Poe was instrumental in establishing the foundation of Romanticism that is best known today; his works concern themselves primarily with the occult and the enigmas prevalent within the human psyche. His story "The Fall of the House of Usher" details the psychological and physical demise of the family Usher; Poe translates atmosphere and setting into the characters in the story, and also transfers human qualities into the actual house, which comes to function as a symbol of the Usher family. The title of the story also represents a duality; ultimately, the house is physically destroyed, as is the family. The house of Usher is clearly the personification of the Usher family; the house symbolizes the Usher family's decline into madness and the eventual demise of the family."
Abstract This paper compares the secular fall in the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe and the divine fall within the epic theological poem "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. The paper reports that the theme of falling from grace is common to both, but in the first it is a secular fall whereas in the second it is a divine, spiritual fall.
From the Paper "However, Poe, while rendering the Biblical figures into a mortal, temporal context, seems to suggest that there is an inherently fallen quality that is irredeemable in some person's souls, like Roderick and Fanny Usher. "Poe mocks the transcendental beliefs, by allowing the characters Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher, the house and the atmosphere to travel in a downward motion into decay and death, rather than the upward transcendence into life and rebirth that the transcendentalists depict. The transcendence of the mind begins with Roderick Usher and is reflected in the characters and environment around him." (Nadeau, 2000) Thus view of the Ushers may be overly harsh--Poe's tone is often not mocking, but elegiac, sympathizing with the downward sinking of the home, and his inversion of the Adam and Eve creation myth, whereby the Usher's failure to procreate and look beyond their union results in the death of their home and line, is not necessarily paraodic, but a warning against self-absorption and narcissism. The fact that tragedy of fallen nature of the Ushers, and the darkness of the house also do not present a perfect parallel either with Milton's Adam and Eve or with the transcendentalist's sunny view of the soul aspiring upwards suggests that the Usher's narcissism deliberately recalls another Miltonic figure, one of arrogance rather than temptation. "
Tags: transcendence, usher, satan, eve, apple, adam
Abstract A literary review of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", focusing on the use of setting. The writer believes that Poe makes special use of setting, to enhance his story. In this particular novel, his use of setting reveals early in the story that both the Usher family and the Usher mansion are decaying from the inside out. The reader can immediately identify with the setting, as it sits on the verge of collapse.
From the Paper "When the narrator first approaches the House of Usher, where he is visiting to comfort his old friend, Roderick Usher, he sees a rotten pool of water. He hesitates, reflecting on his reasons for coming to the dark, gloomy house. The narrator reveals that Roderick is suffering from mental depression and asked his old friend to visit him to cheer him up.
The narrator, at this point, looks into the pool of water, seeing the reversed image of the house. The contours of his own image are superimposed upon the house, giving it the appearance of face. In this clever passage, Poe makes the reader feel as though the house is alive."
Abstract This paper looks at Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and in particular, Poe's narrative strategy and pattern of the narrative. It also examines the literary technique he employs for this horror suspense tale.
From the Paper "In "The Fall of the House of Usher" the narrative achieves a powerful impact because Poe uses a narrative strategy that reveals plot information only when all devices of suspense have been exhausted by unfolding in parallel the real-time experience of the..."
Abstract This paper discusses Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Black Cat," "The Premature Burial", and "The Fall of the House of Usher." It explains how a strange, unnerving familiarity with the characters and situations can be sensed, which allows the reader to subconsciously relate to the macabre experiences and thoughts of the main protagonists.
From the Paper "Yet unlike a good number of his American contemporaries, such as Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe was the penultimate stylist, due to his unconventional approach to subject matter and themes as found in his "tales of terror" which for the most part focus on the bizarre and the unexpected. Also, his various characterizations, such as the "old man" in "The Tell-Tale Heart" and the unidentified protagonist in "The Black Cat," are the result of his theory of literary creation which revolves around two specific points--first, every word and phrase is directed towards a single effect, and second, the use of this single effect must reflect "a vision of truth and the essential condition of human existence and a certain psychological intensity" (Gale Biographical Studies, 2). As Poe himself so acutely declares, "In the whole composition, there should be no word written of which the tendency. . . is not to the one pre-established design" (Magill, Critical Survey, 478)."
Abstract This paper examines Poe's poem, "The Raven", and his short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher", and discusses how he uses gothicism within these writings. It first provides an explanation about the term 'gothicism' and then compares how it is used in each of these pieces of literature.
From the Paper "Throughout the course of the poem, Poe uses a lot of symbolism and Gothicism. For example, line three reads, "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there comes a tapping". In this line, Poe indicates that the man is a state of unconscious or dreaming. As a result, the reader questions whether what happens next is real or just a dream.
In lines 37 & 38 Poe writes, "Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore". In this section, there is a hint of a supernatural force. The reader is led to believe that the raven may be some form of afterlife."
Abstract This paper considers the calculation in Poe's art, both in his poetry and in his fiction. The paper examines the calculation in terms of rationalism being imposed on Romantic literature and looks at how Poe takes the Gothic genre, which is characterized by feeling, and aspires towards a calculated effect instead. The paper relates that by doing this, Poe reinvents the genre and makes it much more powerful. The poem "The Raven", and the short stories "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", are examined in order to illustrate the paper's point.
From the Paper "He made the greatest impact on literature, both in America and abroad, through his short stories. If the novel was the key invention of the 18th century, then the key literary invention of the 19th century was the short story, and it was Poe who finally perfected the medium. According to Poe's definition, the short story is a piece of fiction entirely calculated for the effect on the reader at the denouement. Before this point nobody had written short fiction under such strict measures, and in the process of composing his short stories Poe was laying down the outlines for the genre that were to become the norm. The principal guideline that Poe stressed was the "unity of effect or impression" (Essays, 571). The Fall of the House of Usher is a perfect example. Poe was impatient with the use of metaphor in literature, but he cannot avoid it, because the fall which the story describes is a metaphorical fall of the Usher dynasty. "
Abstract The United Kingdom and the Netherlands have made commendable contributions to social housing over the past century. The successful collaboration of nonprofit builders has resulted in low-cost and efficient social housing in these countries. This paper shows that perhaps the most notable achievement is that housing at affordable prices is easily available to people who need it and, more importantly, at the time they need housing. Many other developed countries, including the Unites States, are struggling to provide acceptable levels of social housing and trying to copy the successful community housing models of European countries.
Paper Outline
Social Housing in Europe
Social Housing in Britain
Housing Associations in Britain
Social Housing in the Netherlands
Housing Associations in the Netherlands
Private Rented Housing Conclusion
From the Paper "In many European cities, low-cost housing is taken for granted; for instance in Tillburg in the Netherlands with a population of 165,000, a single association owns as much as 51 percent of the housing. Rentals charges by this association is only half or maximum two-thirds of market rates. Even in London, one of the high cost cities in the world, housing project developers are required to have 25 to 35 percent of the newly built units in the affordable category. (Johnson, Building a Better City: Europe's Affordable Housing Standard). A unique feature in these countries is the successful integration of "affordable" housing with "market-rate" housing in the same location, which means that people with high and low incomes live together and there is no social stigma attached to such practice."
Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine some of the general policies and history of Housing Connections, a social housing provider in Toronto, Ontario. Those policies are referenced to some of the more basic changes made under the Social Housing Reform Act (2000) before being compared to the policies of another Toronto-based social housing provider, Toronto Community Housing. The end goal is to provide readers with a basic understanding of the role and function of social housing providers within the Toronto area. Specifically, the benefits and limitations of Housing Connections are expanded upon.
Abstract This paper discusses affordable housing and what the involvement of the community and the black church should be on this issue. The writer looks at programs including Habitat for Humanity to define the ways that the community can become involved in providing affordable housing to its residents who are in need.
From the paper:
"There is an ongoing effort to attract African Americans to the affordable housing development industry. In Sacramento California an internship program was piloted that matched minority students to non-profit housing organizations. African American churches and communities could easily use this idea for their own memberships to encourage social understanding and involvement in the ongoing need for affordable housing (Ware, 1998). "
Abstract The objective of this paper is to examine the status and condition of African-Americans as compared to whites in the area of housing. The city of Chicago is used as a specific example, both historically and presently, in relation to access to and cost of affordable housing. The paper includes statistical information which highlights the proportion and number of both groups that occupy public and privately owned housing, the median/average monthly payment for housing. Finally this work reviews how these facts relate to the overall lives of African-American living in the United States.
Table of Contents
Objective
Historical Chicago Housing Facts
Covenants
The Gautreaux Case
Recent Studies and Their Findings
Summary & Conclusion
From the Paper "Seitles claims that integration has been a success in the fight against racial prejudice and states that: "Social consequences of racial isolation intertwine with grim economic realities for minorities. Due to the lack of interaction between racial groups, African-Americans are unprepared to work and socialize in a white majority society, while conversely, whites are not relating to, working with, or living with blacks. Prospects for African-American children raised in such communities are greatly diminished because of the lack of interaction between blacks and whites. Moreover, minority possibilities for advancement consequently decline from the lower quality of education afforded to them in ghetto schools, precluding them from competing for high-income employment. Although these inequalities are not always directly caused by intentional discrimination, residential racial segregation perpetuates these inequalities. Thus, minorities who live in racially homogeneous communities are faced with disadvantages beyond the present economic and social inequalities associated with minority neighborhoods." (Seitles, 1996)"
Abstract This paper reviews Sandra Cisneros' novel, "The House on Mango Street", by focusing on the symbol of a house as presented in the book. According to the reviewer, a house is used as a symbol of comfort, freedom and self-expression instead of as a physical space. Quotes from the book are used to illustrate this thesis. The reviewer further examines the protagonist Esperanza and her views of a house. The author concludes that a house is a symbol of escape for Esperanza.
From the Paper "Not only is the house important, but the conditions that caused them to move around so often are also worth pondering. It is because the family couldn't afford a house of their own that they had to move in and out of various houses. That intensified the desire of the family to have a house of their house especially Esperanza whose desire is most pronounced. Esperanza, the protagonist of the novel, is a young child whose sense of self respect is often dented by the humiliating comments made by others. She grows up believing that her sense of self worth is closely connected with having a house of her own- a white house "with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence" (p. 8)"
Tags: Sandra, Cisneros, The, House, on, Mango, Street
Abstract The paper discusses how the subsidized housing situation in Chicago is growing bleak, as it is doing in many of America's urban communities. The paper explains that the combination of a reduction in public housing and the increasing reliance on Section 8 has caused public housing situations to become critical. The paper notes that some have seen this development as an opportunity to segregate and a lawsuit has been filed to that effect. The paper discusses that whether or not this kind of accusation has a foundation in the truth is a subject of its own, but maintains that regardless of this, public housing is becoming scarcer and cities like Chicago will feel the negative effect more than most.
Abstract This paper examines the relationship between the housing industry and the Canadian economy by looking at how supply and demand effect housing starts, employment and GDP production and growth. It looks at how housing prices vary from region to region across the country and how the housing market plays a crucial role in the Canadian economy.
From the Paper "The housing industry in Canada is impacted by fluctuations in the economy and changes in supply and demand. Neoclassical consumer theory is used to demonstrate the relationship between the housing market and the economy. Recent industry and market reports suggest that the Canadian economy is growing at a strong rate and accounting for an increased share of the country's total economic output. Introduction The housing industry is a significant component of the Canadian economy as low mortgage rates and strong growth in employment and personal income have led to an increase in housing demand ("The Canadian Housing" 1)."
Abstract This paper examines the housing industry from an economic perspective. Various factors that affect housing are considered, such as the impact of price elasticity on the housing market and supply and demand. The author also explores other issues such as wage inequality and inflation. The author concludes by citing the economy's overall influence on the housing industry.
Price Elasticity
Negative and Positive Externalizes
Wage Inequality
Monetary and Fiscal Policies
From the Paper "There are several factors that can influence the housing industry economically. Supply and demand coupled with price elasticity can affect the housing industry. Negative and positive externalities, wage inequality, and the monetary and fiscal policies can all have substantial affect the industry of new homes. It must also be determined exactly how the economy affects the industry in both positive and negative ways."
