Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 story “The Fall of the House of Usher” tells the story of a deteriorating aristocratic family. The narrator visits Roderick and Madeline Usher, the last descendants of the Usher line. The Usher siblings appear to be physically and mentally unstable, and the Usher manor itself appears to be decaying rapidly. Using a rich range of allusions, Poe crafts a chilling, gothic story that descends into sheer psychological dread.

Skills: analysis, close reading, drawing inferences from a text, interpreting implications of allusions

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Allusions activity gives students an opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing allusions. Allusions broaden the scope of a text and imbue passages of the text with deeper meaning by subtly drawing on literature, history, science, geography, philosophy, mythology, or other cultural sources. The main components of this activity include the following:

• A contextualized paragraph of the text
• A handout defining “allusion” with examples from classic works
• A list of tips for spotting allusions
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• An example answer

In completing this activity, students will be able to identify, analyze, and interpret allusions, thereby accessing deeper meanings within the text.