Thursday, November 12, 2009

Fishbowl #1: "Fall of the House of Usher"


Have an enriching discussion about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" while the inner circle discusses similar topics out loud.


A few reminders:


1. Hit F5 to refresh your screen (new comments do not automatically pop up).


2. Show professionalism by using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation; remember that the world will be looking at our blog.


3. If you are responding to someone directly, reference them in your comment.


4. Bring in quotations when possible.


Enjoy!

85 comments:

  1. I kind of don't think the narrator wants to go see his old friend because he hadn't seen him in forever, in a way I think that he has a reason to go. Like because he is curious of wants something out of his friend that he hasn't seen in a while.

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  2. I have to agree that it is a little weird for him to go to this man after so many years, but maybe, like everyone else is saying, that he felt that he should go out of respect for an old time friend.

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  3. Was the narrator the host's only friend?

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  4. I think that Usher reached out to the guest because he was his last friend

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  5. I think he missed Roderick Usher, and I agree with same when she says that he seemed kind of forced to come see him and I agree with Casey that maybe Usher has some sort of power over the narrator. So the narrator could've come out of being forced, and he might've been curious as to what his house was like and why exactly usher wanted him to come.

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  6. I think that he felt like he should go because Usher was one of his good and friends and he might have been curious on how he was doing.

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  7. I agree with Dana, because it was Usher's last wish. And they were also very good friends, so it makes sense that the guest would go to visit him.

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  8. Maybe the Ushers didn't have children because they knew their kids could have genetic flaws.

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  9. I agree with Grant. Just thinking about the condition of the usher family, you would think that Roderick would really love to have him come visit. He seems kind of lonely, and he wants a friend. He must think that no one wants to be around him because of his condition.

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  10. I like to think that the narrator was the host's only friend, Corbin because this family is all each other's family- people don't like this family, at the beginning he says there were rumors about the family. the host and the family probably don't have many friends at all. Wow, I said family a lot!

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  11. i think he thought he was getting sick just because he was watching his friend waste away and he couldn't do anything about it

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  12. when I first read this i thought that she was already dead, that the narrator had seen a ghost. so she could have been a figment of their imaginations. there is obviously something wrong present in the house.

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  13. I agree with Alex i think the Ushers didn't want to have children because they knew they would have genetic flaws

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  14. Corbin-
    In the second paragraph, "... and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend..."

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  15. When I read the story, I first thought Usher was somewhat sane, but couldn't understand why Usher would tell the guest to some visit him only when hes really sick.

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  16. I think the narrator felt like he was getting sick because once he stepped in the house he felt sick and uncomfortable. There was something in the house that made him feel weird. Maybe the house has a certain power or force over the people who lived there. Like the house is alive.

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  17. I think the narrator was uncomfortable, and I agree with Natalie when she said the house is what is affecting him, not Roderick. I think the fact that the family had kids with each other, it made them feel disgusted with themselves, and then they seem to appear crazy. Was it their choice to be closed off from the beginning of the Usher family?

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  18. Alex, they kept getting diseases but they still kept growing within their family. I don't think that they realized the long term effect it had on them.

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  19. I agree with Brain because if you are around illness all the time you do start to get that feeling that you are sick, because if everyone is sick that illness feeling rubs off on you

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  20. Wait, didn't Madeline physically kill Roderick? It says on page 13 that Madeline, "in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse."

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  21. How did all of these sicknesses come to be? Just mental illness or...

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  22. I think there is definitely something wrong in the house and i think it is old and lonely. It kind of goes along with the host because the host seems like he is fading away and kind of sad and lonely.

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  23. April, what makes you think that this "power" in the house makes it alive? and where is this power coming from? do you think it is something that happened in the past?

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  24. I thought the exact same thing as Xavia. I could have sworn she was a ghost when the narrator saw her. I got a really weird feeling about the house right away.

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  25. I have the same question as Rachel, how did all of these sicknesses start they couldnt have just come from nowhere

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  26. April-
    I agree, but I also think that the house it self was gloomy and depressing. And I think this effects the guest and depresses him even more than he already was over the sickness of his friend.

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  27. I think the all illness comes from all the genetic disorders that you create when you have children with your brother or sister.

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  28. i agree with Trace that the house and the owner are connected. However, I have to wonder why he fells so empty and dark like the house. And how does this connect to Roderick's sister?

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  29. Yeah Xavia, I think this is a ghost story because in the last paragraph it says "Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and i turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could wi have issued"
    This story is so hard to interperet!

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  30. Usher and his house really connect, they're both mysterious, possibly hiding a lot of secrets

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  31. April, I think this power is emotional and mental power within the family. That family has lived in that house so long, maybe there's some kind of superstition such as a haunting of a ghost or something? The house is described as somewhat ghastly.

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  32. Do you think the gloominess could cause these illness to worsen?

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  33. I agree with Trace, what caused these sicknesses? Was it something that happened in the past? Could it have been something to do with the house?

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  34. Good point Corbin i didn't think of that

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  35. There is so much left to the imagination about this house's past and the owners of the house.

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  36. trace i think it was from the inbred family and they just had a whole lot of problems and their immunity went down so they caught more sicknesses

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  37. How did the sicknesses seem to spread to the narrator?

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  38. It's weird because we don't know where all of these sicknesses came from. They are all linked to each other by blood, so it just confuses me as of where did these sicknesses come from? They can't just evolve just like that. If they were all so closed off, germs or whatever would've been hard to spread.

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  39. I was wondering why the brother was trying to kill the sister? Kacey was saying that it might be part of its alter ego, and I agree with that. It makes sense with this explaination

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  40. I agree with Corbin that if you are around that sick atmosphere you start feeling as if you are sick also.

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  41. I disagree with Casey i think the girl was real at some point. She may be dead now but at one time i think she was alive i don't think that he just had an alter ego.

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  42. I don't think the illness physically spreads to the narrator I think mentally it spreads to him

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  43. alex, I think that it didn't really spread to him physically but more mentally. He was with Usher, i'm sure his dreariness got to him.

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  44. I believe that Usher and his house are very similar in many ways including that their is a gloominess seems to fill the air and leave an atmosphere of sorrow. I believe the sorrow is infectious and overwhelms anyone who is near the house or Usher

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  45. Xavia, what makes me think that the house has a power is because when I was reading it, it made me think of like a scary movie when you think that the main person is evil but it's something else that is controlling them. The people who lived there seemed like they were going crazy and each day it got worse. They seemed like they had no control over what they were doing. I don't really know where the power is coming from. Maybe from the chamber and I think that something did happen in the past over the years and that caused the house to have some sort of characteristic and anger.

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  46. Do you think the house had anything to do to spread the sickness mentally?

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  47. So, kind of bringing what we just got done talking about in western civ, the black plague. Does this story take place somewhere in Europe? You would think it does, and during the time of the plague, there was the rise of Gothic architecture, and this is a gothic story. Could've there been like rats or something in this old house that brought sicknesses in? most sicknesses that aren't hereditary are invisible or hard to find out where they came from. Does this make sense?

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  48. I could agree with all of you that the narrators mentality made the sickness spread to him. "mind over matter" it was a blood disease so the narrator couldn't have possibly gotten the disease from being around everyone.

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  49. Trace i agree with you! The sister had to be alive I don't think you could make up such an alter ego like that.

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  50. April,
    So do you think something bad once happen in the chamber before that is causing this eariness and sadness in the house?

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  51. It seems that the house can take control over its inhabitants. The narrator can not move and act as he wants to, because the house is almost controlling him. I also feel that the house is used to represent the hosts in the story. The characters are mysterious and strange similar to the house, and also the hosts and the house are killed at the end.

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  52. Thanks for the clarification Khris!!

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  53. Nowlan-
    I agree, I think the house and host are so gloomy and depressing that it causes everyone inside to feel depressed and ill.

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  54. Yeah i am little confused about how the sickness spread to the narrator

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  55. The mental illness is probably from having kids all branching from the same family. Usually people are disturbed by that, i know i am.

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  56. Does anyone else think it's strange that houses sort of take on their own personalities from the events that occur in the house?

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  57. i feel that the house represents Roderick and the worse he get the worse the house and sickness gets and when the house falls so does he.

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  58. I agree with Jeff. It's like the house is controlling Usher like a puppet and when he dies the house dies.

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  59. I also believe that Roderick's death was more of a death of terror then a physical murder. I believe that Madeline did not kill him but the fear of her overwhelmed him and killed him.

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  60. I agree with jeff i think that the people living in the house begin to get sick because of the house's effect on them. I also think that when everyone is sick around you that you begin to get a little sick yourself.

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  61. I think just the idea of having kids within the same family is just disgusting to the narrator. So it seemed like it's taken him over, and making him feel sick with himself while being in the house and around Roderick.

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  62. I was thinking of Western Civ and Europe too, Rachel. These gothic stories reminded me of Gothic Architecture and the plague with all of the sicknesses from this story.

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  63. Xavia I do think it is weird, why is it always with a Gothic house and not normal houses?

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  64. Rachel,
    Going back to what you said a while ago, if the germs were more closed off then it would have been easier to spread the disease because there is less of a way for the germs to go. This might have been during the black plague but remember it was a blood disease.

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  65. Yea, Chris, me too. It makes sense, but not completely. That's just came to mind.

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  66. Chris I agree do you think this is were the mystery started?? With Gothic and death?

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  67. Xavia, I think something bad did happen like a murder or something like that. And because of that the sadness and eariness started and never ended until the last two died. The house had been there for so long something was just bound to happen.

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  68. Yea, Morgan the plague is a possibility, and the blood sickness was just passed on from whenever it was started. it could've been some kind of mental or chronic blood illness as well.

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  69. Corbin, I do think it did kind of start there. It sure does have a big effect if it did.

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  70. I think thats a cool part of gothic stories that not only the characters have personalities but other things through out the story do like the house

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  71. I think the guest went to vist the narrator just because he is a good friend.

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  72. I think the house just causes people to go insane, and that is what is causing the illness.

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  73. I do think the girl was alive at one point, and then i think he just went crazy from guilt.

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  74. The fact that he visited Roderick Usher shows that he did truly have a close relationship with him, it wasn't lost throughout the years and he still cares. The urgency and unexpected request of his visit may have also sparked his interest which could have also influenced his decision to visit him. Even when he figures out why Usher's characteristics changed so suddenly due to the fact that Madeline has passed creepiness of the house suddenly became more intense and he began to feel the sick due to the fact he was surrounded by darkness. Even though we don't know the exact history of the family we can infer that something horrific affected them by the feeling in the story and the setting!

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  75. I think he wanted to visit Roderick Usher because it was his oldest friend and he knew that this could be the last time they could actually sit and talk. I think that the house represents the secrets and the fear of the Ushers. I think this because the house was all gloomy and dark, and there family was all dark and creepy and were just filled with secrets. The darker the house the deeper the secrets got. I think that when Roderick was dying the house itself was dying. After he died, the house had a crack in it kind of representing that Roderick was like the host to the house and with him gone there was nothing to stand up for. All the secrets died with him so the house doesn't serve a purpose anymore.

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  76. In this story, I would say that the main character is the house. It almost completely over takes every character in the story and Poe gives it a feeling of being gigantic and almost monsterous. The setting of this story is a typical gothic setting, "The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered...I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow" (Poe 3). I think that this aspect of the story gives it less mystery because from the beginning with this sort of atmosphere the reader automatically suspects odd things to happen. The house also very much represents Roderick Usher as Mallory stated. It's hard to tell though who was the host between the house and Usher. I wonder who was feeding off of who? Was it Usher that because he lived in such a dark and dieing environment became that way himself or was it the house that became that way because of Usher?

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  77. I think the guest came to Usher’s house because he was curious they was something he wanted to know or figure out about him. The Ushers didn’t have children because they knew that they would have genetic flaws and would have to live a difficult life. The Ushers have a mental illness and they see no problem with inbreeding. I think that the house and the Ushers are connected because he feels dark and empty like the house. It also seems like the house has control over the people inside it and can dictate what they do. Could the house be the main character? Poe describes the house with all these characteristics why does he do this, is he trying to make it seem as if it were a human?

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