The Diary of a Policeman

Rationale

The Tell-Tale Heart is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843. The story in first person
shows us the emotional shifts and thoughts of the narrator who committed a murder and
then encountered the police.

For my literature-critical study part written task, I will analyze the thoughts and reactions of
a police officer who arrived at the house of the narrator upon a notice. The written task will
be in the form of a diary entry for the officer, as he had a chance to observe the events after
the murder that the narrator committed. This format will enable me to mention the
reactions of the officer to the events as well as refer to the strange character of the narrator.

The purpose for this task is to view events from a different perspective and develop the idea
of abnormality the narrator has. In the class discussions we held, we talked about the
instability and the inner-self of the narrator that caused a confession. This characterization
contributed to my understanding that the man may have unexpected actions. Therefore, it is
reasonable for the police who dealt with him to feel upset and angry, as if an unexpected
confession did not occur, they would not have found anything out.

I achieved the tone of the officer by using an older word choice and his own appearance in
the story: “satisfied” at the start, however, a possible shift towards surprise and anger after
the confession. The feeling of a diary was created by mentioning the personal feelings and
thoughts of the officer about the narrator and the events that occurred. I created a surprised
but upset tone for the officer who believes that he failed to notice something irregular from
the start and actually got played by a murderer.

Word count: 299

Day 1

Yesterday night and early morning has been a very interesting incident for me. After all the
years of serving the department, chasing down criminals, and encountering countless cases,
something still caused me to be surprised and upset at the same time. The house we went to
at 4 AM with two fellow officers was a very disparate story relative to other cases. I just
arrived home after a night and a day of work, so now, I have the chance to think back on
what actually happened.

It was around 4 AM, hours after midnight, the time in which people would normally be
sleeping. When the police office was called by the neighbor of the house, who stated that a
shriek was heard, I left office with two officers to go and search the premises. At first, I
thought that it was simply a loud noise that was heard and there was nothing too important
about it. It was even possible that the neighbor maybe even exaggerated the issue. With the
questions in my mind on what was going on in a private property at 4 AM, I headed towards
the house to see what the case was.

A man who was living alone opened the door. At that point, we, as officers, thought that we
overestimated the case. The man was asleep and his dream caused the shriek, at least,
according to what he told us. To make sure, and to not skip any details regarding the
procedure (as we might never be sure whether we are facing a lie or not), we also searched
the premises we were deputed to do so with the assistance of the owner. The man told us
the old man living in the house was out of the country, and when we looked around, we
could not see a trace of the old man, thus resulting in our trust towards the owner.

The man brought us chairs and we had a time to chat. It was early morning anyways. There
was no reason for us to immediately leave when there was a friendly, smiling man eager to
have a short talk with us. Therefore, we decided to take a seat as we were fatigue. However,
as time passed on

Day 2

I will continue the story today. Just as I was reflecting on the experience I had, I heard a
scream from the kitchen that came from my wife. She accidentally burned her hand while
cooking, and I had to go and help her out clean up the mess and check up on her small scar.
After dinner, I was too tired to continue writing and went directly to sleep.

So, where did I leave from yesterday? Oh, I just mentioned we were having a talk with the
owner. However, as minutes passed on, I started to recognize a pale color in his face. The
smile disappeared and the man suddenly seemed exhausted. He started arguing about trifles
with violent gesticulations. At first, I thought that maybe, he was bored and wanted to go
asleep again, as he was up in the middle of the night. As police officers, we always need to
keep an eye open and we automatically tend to observe reactions and changes in people
from our experiences in interrogations. The man’s voice became louder and he started
performing abnormal actions. I was surprised and wondered if there was anything wrong.
After the man pushed the chair to his side, he shouted “Villains” to us. All of us were
confused, as the man suddenly tore the planks and showed us a dead body of an old man.
He was screaming “here, here, it is the beating of his hideous heart” with a timorous tone.

Now büyük adam sınav nasıl gidiyor reflecting in my warm bed at my house, I realize how
once in a lifetime experience this was. The arresting procedure was as always, however,
what surprised me the most was the revelation. I still wonder what made a smiling, buoyant
man suddenly to confess a murder he committed? Even at the start, how was he even so
confident in himself against us and how couldn’t we understand even a signal of something
that went fallacious? Also, what was that entire heart beat thing about? It was clear that he
was the only one who heard the noises and I did not understand a bit of what he was talking
about. I think this certain action of him clearly showed his paranoia to us.

This was my first time in my career coming across someone with such a high level of
psychological instability in his inner self. The man was not similar to anyone I have
encountered before and he obviously has an inconsistent state of mind. He did not have the
general criminal traits, and, his motivation for the murder is also unknown by the
department. Since then, there is this feeling I cannot name inside myself. Is it failure,
because we could not see a problem beforehand, is it success, because we managed to
handle the case according to the legal procedure, or is it none, as the man was the one who
hid it and then confessed later as he determined how the events flowed? I still do not know.

Whatever. It was a tremendous shock and surprise for me overall. It is even an insult for an
officer like me to have skipped to identify a murderer. I am still upset thinking about the
situation I was in at the office: we arrested a man who confessed a murder after we failed to
find out. The eyes on us were surprised but also disappointed in a sense: how could a
paranoid man trick all of us at the start? Anyways, I am too tired of thinking about the issue
as it makes me angrier every time. This much from me today, guess I am going to read some
books and go to sleep.

Word count: 994 CCC