6. Look closely at the passages involving the narrator's original household, the fire, and the impoverished dwelling/damp cellar at the end of the tale.
Symbolically, how might these three elements be connected to show a larger
message about the narrator's mental state?

Answer and Explanation:

This question is about the short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe.

The narrator is originally a good man who, in the end, kills his own wife and their black cat.

Poe uses several symbols to portray the narrator's mental state. The original household, a good house where the narrator and his wife lived with several pets, represents freedom and balance. That was when the narrator was still a sane, loving man. The fire that destroys his home represents the decay of his mental state, its deterioration. Just like the fire consumed the house, alcoholism is consuming the narrator and his qualities. Finally, the impoverished house and the cellar - damp, dark, and suffocating - represent his insanity. The narrator is now trapped in his own craziness.

in general, fiction refers to plot, settings, and characters created from the imagination, while nonfiction refers to factual stories focused on actual events and people. however, the difference between these two genres is sometimes blurred, as the two often intersect.

explanation: