Perception in The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe Essay Example

📌Category: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature, Writers
📌Words: 623
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 23 April 2022

Perception is something in life that has a major impact on the truth. Nothing  But The Truth, a story about a boy who gets transferred into his least favorite teacher’s class and causes a disturbance in class by humming to the National Anthem instead of standing in respectful silence, says a person's perception affects the truth, which is developed differently in the text “A Tell-Tale Heart.” “A Tell-Tale Heart” is a story of a man who suddenly gets murdered by his neighbor in the middle of the night. Nothing But The Truth says perception affects which is developed differently than in the text “A Tell-Tale Heart.” 

The truth is affected by our perception. Phillips Malloy is forced to switch homerooms in the middle of his freshman year. He ends up being in his least favorite teacher's class, Miss Narwin. Every morning in the homeroom, Phillips school plays “The Star-Spangled Banner” over the intercom. One morning Phillip was told to stand in silence and be respectful, Philip chose otherwise and started to hum along. Miss Narwin immediately tells Philip to stop. Phillip then does the same thing the next day because he knows it bothers her. Phillips continues to do this, day after day Phillip Malloy hums to the “Star-Spangled Banner,” hoping he can annoy her enough that he gets switched back to his old homeroom. One morning Miss Narwin sent Phillip to the vice principal's office. From there, he soon got suspended. During the time of suspension, Phillip and his dad sit down for an interview with the news to discuss their perspective on the whole suspension. The Malloys are a family who viewed themselves as a patriotic family, but not to a high extent. The Malloys town, on the other hand, views them as patriotic. Philips humming and singing to the national anthem has left his town perceiving that his family is very patriotic, when they are not. In reality Philip was not humming to be disrespectful when he was told to stand silente, but he did it with the mindset of aggravating Miss Narwin to the point where he gets out of her class. 

“A Tale-Tell Heart” is another great demonstration of truth, perception and reality. This is a story about a young man who murdered his neighbor. He repeatedly goes back to the old man's house night after night, watching him in his sleep. One nigh he finally decides to murder the old man, putting him the the bathtub and washing away the evindence of the murder. This man is the narrator through and throughout the story he repeatedly tried to prove to us as the reader that he was not crazy and does not have mental problems. After the murder happens he hears a knock on the door. It was three policemen who were there to search the house. The murder leads them through the house and proceeds to tell a story to the point where he almost got away with it.   This leads to the murderer losing his cool and confessing, telling the policemen to tear up the planks where the old man’s heart is still beating. Just like in life, we can use perception to cover up the truth, just like this young man did in “A Tell-Tale Heart.”

Each of these stories present the theme of Truth, Perception, and Reality. All presented in a different way though. Nothing But The Truth presents this theme through telling the truth from the narrator's perspective and not everyone else believing it. In “A Tale-Tell Heart '' The narrator tries to prove to us as the reader that he is not Cyco, but we know that's not the truth. 

Throughout this essay, examples have been provided from the passages ``Nothing But The Truth'' and “A Tell-Tale Heart” supporting the theme that perception affects the truth in people throughout life. It has been developed differently through both articles in different ways, but it all leads  back to the final claim, that in life truth is affected by people's perceptions.

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