Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were writers of the American Gothic genre. Both used the elements of horror and mystery in their writing styles, writing about the dark side of humanity and the evil that lives in the human mind. Both used themes and symbols centered around darkness and evil with their characters battling various psychological issues. However, Poe's stories are told in the first person and he focuses on a human psychological effect, observing man's thoughts from inside his mind and how his behavior affects his surroundings. Hawthorne uses the third person and focuses more on how man's thoughts and behaviors are the result of what happens around him. Both Poe and Hawthorne used symbolism to tell their stories. In The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe uses a number of symbols such as the old man's eye and heart. The narrator notes that the old man's eye "the eye of a vulture... every time it fell on me, my blood ran cold" is the reason the old man must be killed - even though he "loved the old man " (Poe 691). When he looks into the old man's room...