Smith 1
Smith, Jane
Professor Bessenbacher
English M01B 10:00
29 Feb. 2016
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Baldwin reveals that Sonny is a meticulous character when he writes, “He was at the
piano all day Saturday and all day Sunday” (89).
Repetition emphasizes Twyla’s mental state: “I could have killed her” (Morrison 135).
Baldwin emphasizes that the silence “must have been louder than the sound of all the
music ever played since time began” (90).
On a cold and cloudy day, the persona “was trotting along and suddenly / it started
raining and snowing” (O’Hara 2-3).
The narrator justifies his impulsive decision of choosing an arbitrary road by claiming it
was “the one less traveled by, / and that [it] has made all the difference” (Frost 19-20).
Clearly, Jackson is inferring a contradiction of what the modern term “lottery” means by
foreshadowing the ending: “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the
other boys soon followed” (1).
Poe suggests the beginning of a deeper bond being formed in the lounge as the “wine
sparkled in [Luchresi’s] eyes and the bells jingled” (111).
Montressor’s character is so elaborate and overly dramatic that he finds it necessary to
create “a spectacle of execution so that the victim knows who kills him” (Baraban).
Smith 2
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J.
Mays. Las Vegas: Norton. 2014. 73-100. Print.
Baraban, Elena V. "The Motive for Murder in 'The Cask of Amontillado'." Rocky Mountain
Review 58.2 (2004): 47-62. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Vol. 111. Detroit: Gale,
2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Jan. 2016.
Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J. Mays.
Las Vegas: Norton. 2014. 131-47. Print.
O’Hara, Frank. “Poem.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J. Mays.
Las Vegas: Norton. 2014. 460. Print.