Edgar Allan Poe

For my Edgar Allan Poe selections, I read "The Pit and The  Pendulum" and "The Masque of the Red Death". I selected these stories because they are both commonly included in secondary education curriculum. I also selected these because they are some of my favorite Edgar Allan Poe stories to analyze. These texts are probably appropriate for Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers but "The Masque of the Red Death" might be best used in High School simply because the language is a little more complex.

Both of these texts are probably best for teaching close reading skills in the classroom. These aren't necessarily the first stories I would think to recommend to a student who's looking for an enjoyable Young Adult read, but they offer plenty of opportunity for analysis, character breakdowns, theme exploration, etc. These stories are best engaged in the context of discussion so that students can make meaning in a discursive context.

Some challenges with these stories are the generally tense and violent nature of them. Psychological torture is a persistent theme throughout "The Pit and the Pendulum" and both narratives deal heavily with the prevalence and inescapability of death. I doubt administrators would take issue with these texts, but parents and students alike could be disturbed by them; they are intentionally disturbing stories after all.