Edgar Allan Poest

"Lionizing"
This short story was more satirical than most of Poe's other works that seem more dark, goth, or horror style of works that I've read in the past. I had to look up the word "lionize" to understand the title, in the day this meant that someone was treated like an object. This is a story that has a main character, Robert Jones who is treated like an object from the moment he "was breeched" when he grabbed his nose with his hands, his parents praised him. This is what continues throughout the story until the end, when Robert shoots off someones nose and his lionizing comes to an end, rather abruptly, a lot like the story does.
This is something that would be fun to do with students in a classroom, because it's probably something that they haven't read before. It's also a lot different from what they would have read, if they read Poe in another classroom. It would produce a lot of new and original thoughts from the students. We could discuss how the title is involved with the story, and how the end of the story is written and ends abruptly like the characters "lionizing" ends abruptly. Overall, it would be interesting to dissect this story with the students.