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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize this chapter as a movement from calculated control to helpless dependence, then identify the single sentence in which that reversal is most fully concentrated. What does your choice reveal about how Poe wants the chapter read?
Discussion Questions
- Gordon prefaces his account by denying that anyone can 'deduce inferences with entire certainty, even from the most simple data,' and the chapter repeatedly shows him interpreting signs under pressure. How should that opening claim shape the way we weigh his testimony? Use details from the chapter to defend your view.
- Gordon's account of his 'intense hypocrisy' is delivered in some of the chapter's most elaborate prose. How does the rhetoric of that confession change the way you read its sincerity? Use details from the chapter.
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Critical Thinking
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