Other

       America is known to be a melting pot of cultures. People from around the world come here to experience the diversity of America. Some people come to be who they are and others come to make their lives better, but still respect their culture. Sometimes when they are put into places with a ton of other cultures it is hard to keep their own through generations to come. One of the many issues families face is how to accept and explore their cultures without forcing it on your kids. You want your kids to grow up and love what you grew up to love, but they were born and raised in America. They grew up completely different from how you did and you can't change that. You can try but they will never truly appreciate your culture. The one good thing about America is the fact that not one single person is the same, every person has a separate background. As much as they try to run from it, it will always be apart of them.

      You could say that my family is lucky because we don't really have to worry about all of that too much. Both  of my parents were born and raised in America, and their parents were too. My dad's great grandmother was part Native American and my mother's side of the family is part German and part Scottish. We don't have a rich culture to celebrate and accept. We do though have some Indian artifacts through out my house, and my uncle does look for arrow heads. Sometimes he will even make them. Besides that we really don't look into our culture. I do though wish we had some sort of rich culture, like if my grand parents were from some foreign country or even my parents.

    If my family had a dynamic background I would be interested in it. I would want to go visit every summer where they are from. I would want to try all of the cool and unique foods that come from there. I believe learning their language would be a great way to celebrate the culture as well, not only does it help you get a job but there is now something about you that sets you aside from everyone else. It's important for people to celebrate their rich culture and heritage, if I had a super cool one I would.

A Walk Down Creepy Hollow

   The one technique that I would definitely use would be the fact that he had an open ended ending. He ends the story with not truly telling what happens to all of the characters. This makes you want to re read it to figure out what happened, to see if you missed something. Also you may have a theory about one way the book ended and someone else might have a theory of their own about how it ended. So they will go back and re read it and maybe even get more people to want to read just to settle the debate of what really happened in the ending.

  Edgar Allen Poe is an amazing author. He can create the scariest stories, you feel as though they are happening right before your eyes yet they are just words on a paper. He takes you into a world of his own. That is why I would look to his creepier works when trying to write a scary story.
   One technique Poe uses is imagery. Imagery is one of the main techniques that create a make or break story. If the imagery is not that detailed then the story will be bored. Poe uses this technique very well in "The Fall of the House of Usher". One of the best parts was when Roderick sees Madeline back from the dead still bloody from her struggle. The use of imagery allows us to imagine it happening, and feel the feelings of fear that Roderick would have felt. 

  Another technique he uses that I would use would be resurrection. With today's obsession with the dead it would be a key part to a scary movie. Poe uses resurrection when Madeline comes back from the dead and Roderick dies of fear. Using resurrection adds a completely new concept of fear, because of horror movies and short stories like these people fear death and everything about it. Can you imagine how scary it would be to open your door and see someone you have just seen dead standing there still covered in blood?

  Poe also uses personification and setting. Both of these strategies go hand in hand. Poe does a very good job of describing the house. He sets up an eerie tone even before the story has started by describing the house. Also using personification to exemplify this creepiness. By describing the house as a ghost-like thing. He does this to add another factor of scariness to the story.


   As you can tell Edgar Allen Poe is an amazing author. He was the beginning to all of the creepy stories, and even today you still see his techniques being used. He should be idolized more for his amazing work.