Narrative Perspective Assignment: Exploring Fear, Suspense, and Choice

You’ve read three powerful stories that deal with fear, suspense, guilt, and choice: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, an excerpt from Monster by Walter Dean Myers, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Each story uses suspense, strong character voices, and surprising decisions to explore human behavior. Now, it’s your turn to write.

Choose one of the three texts (The Tell-Tale Heart, Monster, or The Lottery) and write a narrative from the perspective of a different character in the story (someone who is mentioned in the text, but is not the original narrator or main character). Use your chosen character’s point of view to reveal new insights about the events and decisions in the story. Your narrative should include original dialogue, strong word choices, and internal thoughts that reflect the character’s emotions and motivations.