English Period 4
November 7, 2012

Once driven insane man becomes irrational and illogical, portrayed throughout literature. Illustrating this routine, Secret Window follows a man and the challenges he faces against himself and society. Another example of this pattern is exposed through a man and his struggles, which lead to his downfall, seen via The Fall of the House of Usher. Both stories are very similar in the fact that they fallow the same out line, but the actual situations differ from the movie to the short story. Each story focuses around a man who seems to have become lost in his own mind, illustrating insanity and its effect on man. The mental instability of each man leads him to become irrational and act in a barbaric manner. Seen via The Fall of the House of Usher, the main character, being the narrator, becomes distraught and consequently murders his sister because he is unable to think rationally. In addition, the narrator in Secret Window also lost all self-control resulting in the death of his wife. Furthermore, in the end of both stories the house cracks straight down the middle to symbolize a weak foundation as well as their sanity being lost. This subsequently leads to each character becoming unable to distinguish reality from their corrupt thoughts. The houses are then become ruined as their lives are falling apart before their own eyes. Although each story shares similarities, there are also some differences. In Secret Window there is a side story that is about the narrator and his wife, and their struggles with their divorce, which aids to the narrator becoming insane because it made him want to escape reality. Resulting in him having two different personalities. In The Fall of the House of Usher the story focuses on the death of the narrators sister because of her “sickness” but in