Essay on "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe

Narrator's Self-Destruction
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe is an American classic about a man that loses his sanity because of one cat. Poe wrote the book after his wife's death and his moms death. The narrator is self-destructive by killing or hurting all things that loved him, alcoholism, and recognizes his self-destructiveness.
Alcoholism was a factor in the narrator's self-destruction. He wasted hours at the local pubs. Alcoholism drives him to stab an eye out of his cat, Pluto by saying, "My disease grew upon me-for what disease is like alcohol! -And at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and consequently somewhat peevish-even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper." (39). …