When you try to find treasure, you follow the map. When you read a story, you listen to the narrator. Once you arrive at the final destination, you may not find any treasure, a disappointment that would mean you had a misleading map. Likewise, events might not unfold as you predicted, so the narrator would be unreliable. You have to dig deep into the ground to find out if the treasure is really there. Likewise, as a reader, you need to dig deeper and read critically to determine whether the narrator is reliable or not. “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a narrator who tells the reader his story of how he ended up where he is: in prison. It all starts when he gets a cat named Pluto who loves him until he is mistreated, which leads to many other horrible events. It becomes clear that the narrator has no conscience as Poe reveals the type of character he really is. In "The Black Cat", the narrator indicates many signs of unreliability, as he makes the reader question what details to believe, denies being crazy, and explains how he became perverted. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay To begin, the narrator begins to tell the reader his story with some details that might, in themselves, not be trustworthy. He begins to inform the reader about what the story is about by stating that his story is “without comment, a series of simple domestic events” (Poe 3). This means that the events that follow to explain his situation are absolutely normal and relevant to others. While reading, the reader remembers this and discovers that this is not the case and that ordinary events are not told. Furthermore, the narrator blames one and only one thing for the cause of all the situations he found himself in: alcohol. He says, “But my sickness grew upon me – for what sickness like alcohol” took over and made him ill-tempered (Poe 5). The night he was drunk, Pluto bites the narrator, which infuriates the narrator who ends up cutting out one of his eyes. With many events like this, the reader may judge his actions and conclude that alcohol is not the cause of all problems. Instead, it was the root of his downfall and led to all the bad habits he ended up with. Even if it caused all the problems, the reader can't trust everything that is told because it probably wasn't reasonable and half of his story would just be guesswork. In general, many statements are false, but the narrator mentions them to convince the reader to believe him. Additionally, the narrator also argues that he is not mentally ill to begin with. He must have said from the start: "Yet I am not mad - and I am certainly not dreaming" because he believes that it is essential that the reader can trust him since the things he says are abnormal (Poe 3). . However, it is a clear sign that the narrator is crazy due to the fact that he is trying to prove that he is not. Even though he has just said that he is not crazy, the narrator tells the reader: “Tomorrow I die, and today I will ease my soul” (Poe 3). He wants relief and begins to confess to all the horrible crimes he has committed. This becomes suspicious because we don't expect him to try to convince the reader of his sincerity after telling them he was going to die for his actions. An implication can be formed that the narrator is not providing the correct facts about.