A Hunger Artist

The story has an interesting and morbid feel to it. The "Hunger Artist" is about a man who is put on display for his ability to fast for such a long time. He comes under great criticism and doubt by his audience whether he is the real deal. Throughout the story he tries to keep the audiences interest but ends up having to join a circus to promote his talent. I get the feeling that the story is about the nature of the entertainment industry and how hard it is to entertain the public and keep their interest. The insatiable demands placed on artists, and the stressful lifestyle of an artist who keeps his audiences more entertained than the last time they saw them.

Young Goodman Brown

This story is much like the story of "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde", which is about the good and evil which is immanent within human nature. I think this story has a religious theme to it, which suggests a story of morality. His wife, ironically named "Faith" sparks Goodman Brown's understanding of the good and bad that lies within human nature. Goodman leaves his house where his wife Faith resides. Which is most likely a symbol of leaving his religion, to begin a journey to an undisclosed location. I believe this story was also written not too long after the witch trials in the late 1600's, but it doesn't seem clear whether or not that has any relevance to the focus of this story.

The Purloined Letter

The story starts off with the Prefect of Police in Paris visiting a man named Dupin with a problem. He explains to him that a letter has been stolen and is being used to blackmail the person from whom it was stolen. He introduces him to find the letter since the owner of the letter is an important government figure. The Prefect believes Minister D has the letter, so he searches his home thoroughly, but finds nothing. Dupin suggests they research the house. A month later, Monsieur G returns, but finds nothing. This time, he says that he will pay fifty thousand francs to anyone who can obtain the letter for him. Dupin invites him to write the check; when this is done, Dupin hands the Prefect the letter without any further comment. The story doesn't have a lot of reader detective work that they have to follow throughout the story, the story more revolves around Dupin doing all of the detective work and we as the reader understanding his logic of detective work.

The Use of Force

This short story is about a doctor who makes a house call. The doctor is greeted by two friendly parents of a possibly very sick child. The story goes into extensive detail about the process of testing the child for the possible infectious disease, known as diphtheria. The story did have a psychotic feeling to it like some kind of bad 30's horror flick. The doctor seemed like an honest, caring doctor but for him to say, "I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it" was kind of disturbing. The title "The Use of Force" is regarding the force the doctor uses to examine the childs condition. But, it might also be relating to the dominant nature of man. One side of this man wants to cure her, and the other side of him wants to tear her apart. The story might be talking about the instabilities of human nature.