Paige Kramer

Period 7
Who is Further Removed From Reality?

According to Mayo Clinic, after getting drunk, you can feel unsteady, lose thought
of what you are saying, become confused, aggressive, have coordination problems and
gain many more complications. This is what happened to the man in Black Cat by
Edgar
Allen Poe. He was an alcoholic which made him very removed from reality
because he was always under the influence. He could not control his actions, or think in
the right mindset. Perception is the way that one may view something, but reality is the
way that the situation really is. The man from the Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe is

farther removed from reality than Lydia and George from the story The Veldt by Ray
Bradbury. The man from the Black Cat perceived the lives of his cat and his wife as
worthless, if they bothered him in some small way, while Lydia and George perceived
the home they lived in as normal although it did everything for them. As the story went
on, the parents learned that their home wasnt reality, and they were cutting their
children off from the outside world. The kids learned that it was normal for your house to
take care of you and do everything for you. In the story Black
Cat by Edgar Allen Poe,
the man is more removed from reality than Lydia and George from the story The Veldt
by Ray Bradbury.
In the story Black Cat, the man was very removed from reality. He could not
control his feelings and the smallest of things that bothered him caused him to commit a

terrible doing.
One morning in cold blood, I slipped a noose about [Plutos] neck and hung it to
the limb of a tree; hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the
bitterest remorse at my heart; hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and
because I felt it had given me no reason of offence States page six in the
story the Black Cat.
The man hung his cat Pluto because he had felt that the cat had shown too much
affection towards him. Most days the man was drunk, and he could not control his
actions. He committed the act of hanging his cat because it didnt even occur to him
what he was doing, as he was under the influence of alcohol.
Another reason why the man from Black Cat was very removed from reality is
because of his anger. He would be in rage, and then he would do something terrible in
conclusion. One night the man returned home very drunk, not knowing what was going
on. He was very sensitive because of those circumstances. His cat, according to him,
was avoiding him, and therefore he seized him.
One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town,
I fancied that [Pluto] avoided my presence. I seized him; when in her fright at my
violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of the
demon immediately possessed me. I knew myself no longer I took from my
waistcoat-pocket a pen knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by its throat, and
deliberately cut one of its eyes from its eye socket. States the story the Black
Cat on page five.
The man as you can tell, is very removed from reality when he becomes drunk. He gets
angry with the least bothersome actions around him, in which causes him to do terrible
things for no reason.
Lydia and George from the Veldt by Ray Bradbury are also very much removed

from reality. They live in a HappyLife Home that does about everything for them. This
includes feeding them, telling them the news of the outside world, and entertaining their
children.
They walked down the hall of their HappyLife Home...This house which clothed
and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them.
Their approach was sensed by a hidden switch and the nursery light turned on
when they came within ten feet of it. Similarly, behind them, in the halls, lights
went on and off automatically as they left them behind. States page one in The
Veldt by Ray Bradbury.
As you can tell by the text, Lydia and George dont do anything for themselves. They
most likely dont even know how to care for themselves or their children. They have
been living in this house that does everything, so they havent experienced the reality of
living in a normal house where you have to cook, clean, and do mostly everything their
house does for them, on your own.
While some people may say Lydia and George from The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
are the furthest removed from reality, the man from the Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe
is much further removed. The man in the Black Cat is always under the influence. He
commits actions that those in reality would not undergo. His brain is never in the right
state of mind, therefore, he doesnt make good decisions, such as cutting the eye out of
his cat, killing his cat, and killing his wife. On page 11 he states,
The cat followed me down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me headlong,
exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe, and forgetting, in my wrath, the
childish dread which had hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the animal,
which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as I wished.
But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife I withdrew my arm from her
grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot. The man
exclaims on page eleven.

The man as you can tell is not in the right state of mind. He is very removed from reality
when he is drunk and he undertakes situations without even thinking. He is like a young
child learning directions. They do things that older children would not do, because they
know better. But in this case, the man does not learn his lesson. As the reader can see,
the man from Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe is more removed from reality than Lydia
and George from The Veldt by Ray Bradbury.
In the story Black Cat, the narrator in the story is very removed from reality.
Most nights he comes home drunk, and he isnt in the right mindset. He once came
home and cut the eye out of his cat. Another night he hung his cat on a tree outside his
home, and a third night he killed his wife. In the story The Veldt, Lydia and George live
in a HappyLife home that does everyday chores for them. They dont need to do
anything that most people do in reality, because it gets done for them. All in all, the
narrator from Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe is further removed from reality than Lydia
and George from the The Veldt by Ray Bradbury.