Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1890. His family consisted of his parents, who were traveling actors, his brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, and his sister, Rosalie Poe. Edgar's parents, however, died when he was only three years old. Edgar's brothers were later split up to live with other family members, but a wealthy tobacco merchant, John Allan, and his wife, Frances Valentine Allan, took Edgar in and raised them as their own. Poe grew up in Richmond, Virginia and dreamed of becoming a writer, although John preferred to be a businessman. In 1862 Poe began attending the University of Virginia. Although Poe excelled in his classes, he soon found himself in a significant amount of debt. To pay for school, Poe began gambling, only to find that he was in even more dire straits. Poe returned to Richmond because he was so poor. Upon his return he discovered that his fiancée had moved on and was engaged to another man while he was in college. Heartbroken and angry, Poe spent only a few months at the Allan mansion before leaving to seek adventure. At the age of eighteen Poe published his first book, Tamerlane, and soon after enlisted in the United States Army. Two years later he discovered that Frances was dying of tuberculosis. She was the only mother Poe had ever known, so Poe returned to Richmond when he heard her request to see him before she died. When he came back, Frances had already been buried. During his stay at the house Poe and Allen worked on their relationship, and Allen was able to help Poe get an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Before leaving for West Point Poe published another book of poems. Poe only attended West Point for a short and...... middle of paper ......y toes. I was very intrigued and want to continue reading because I wasn't sure what the character would do: kill the old man or get trapped in the process. Once the old man died I couldn't believe what happened next. The fact that he cut up the old man's body to hide that he had killed someone, in real life, seems morbid to me, but it's a good story. I also thought it was interesting how Poe really managed to show readers how paranoid his character was. When I finished reading the story I no longer had any questions about what happened or why it happened. I could easily read and understand that the character didn't like the old man because of his "evil eye". In the end this character handed himself in to the police because he was paranoid. I thought it was an interesting turn of events because the whole time I thought he was going to get away with murder.