Poe Response

Whenever an author creates any type of literary work, they are bound to receive many different responses and reviews on their writing. Literary critiques can be considered as a good thing for the author. They provide the author with a variety of opinions and beliefs of how the author can improve their literary work. Even though literary responses can be viewed upon as helpful sources of improvement, they can only be looked upon this way if the author of the literary response has formulated their views, on the literary work they are commenting on, with sufficient and trustworthy reasons support their reasoning for even developing their ideas of improvement. The author of the literary work, which is doing the critiquing, must formulate good main points and include adequate support for their main points within their literary response. Even though Jeanne M. Malloy did properly implement her main points and support for these main points, she could have done so in a better fashion.
Every type of literary work must contain, at the least, one main point. An author must implement a main point into their literary work so that their audience will have an understanding on what the author is trying to persuade them to believe. Without the inclusion of an author’s main points, the audience would become confused on what the author’s purpose for writing their literary work was, and the author would then be without a rationale for developing the literary work in the first place. In order to ensure that her audience would be fully aware of what she was exactly attempting to convince them on, Jeanne M. Malloy made sure that she placed both of her main points within her literary response to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Jeanne M. Malloy’s main points were that Edgar Allen Poe “couched … events in apocalyptic imagery” (Malloy, 82) and “using apocalyptic imagery as part of a psychological reconception.” (Malloy, 86) In order to provide logos for these main points the author had to use support of many different varieties. Jeanne M. Malloy used outside resources, such as the Book of Revelation, to help prove her point that Edgar Allen Poe used apocalyptic imagery throughout her literary review. “Hirsch, for example, is comfortable with the conclusion.” (Malloy, 83) Besides simply remaining to his views, he used other people’s views and ideas to support his main ideas. Since Jeanne M. Malloy used a wide variety of support, she succeeded in providing logos for her main points, but she did have some flaws within her literary response.
Even though the author may find their literary work perfect, there will always be room for improvements. When Jeanne M. Malloy was trying to explain to her audience why she believed in her main points and why they were right, she tended to leave some deeper descriptions out. These descriptions were necessary in order for the audience to understand why her explanations were logical. Jeanne M. Malloy claims that “Poe heralds … an announcement amply fulfilled by the violence, pain, and horror experienced by the narrator in his prison cell,” (Malloy, 82-83) but after she says this, she does not explain why she believes that to be so. Jeanne M. Malloy tends to get off topic as well. On page eighty-five of Jeanne M. Malloy’s literary response the paragraph starting with “according,” she dedicates that whole paragraph to talk about English Romantic literature, a supporting detail. So, she is basically supporting her supporting detail instead of using her supporting detail to support her main points. By getting off topic she is only placing unneeded and excess information into her literary response. Which will result in confusing the audience on what the author’s true main points are. If she did not make these flaws, then her literary response would sound and flow so much smoother.
Even though Jeanne M. Malloy did properly implement her main points and support for these main points, she could have done so in a better fashion. Since there are no literary works that will ever be perfect, there was bound to be flaws within Malloy’s own literary response. Even the literary responses need literary responses to make them better.