solved Task one: the interpretive goal What do you think this

Task one: the interpretive goal
What do you think this story is about? What does it “mean?” You need to come up with some overall interpretive claim here—your thesis.
Sometimes, if you are stuck, you can use an “intentional fallacy” to help you out here: ask yourself, “what did the author want his reader to understand from the story?” or “what was the take-away lesson he intended?” Now, following from New Criticism, we know that is an interpretive fallacy; however, we are just using it to help generate our ideas, not argue them.
Alternately, you could think back through the tale and, looking at your annotations, determine which/what idea/ideas arise in your mind as the most important. Does it seem to be the narrator’s moments of rationalization? The instances of violent behavior? His direct addresses to the reader? His attempts to cast blame elsewhere? His “confession?” His focus on the cats? Whatever you determine, looking back through the story with this focus, what moments are relevant, and putting them together, what is the story “saying” about and through them?
Task two: the New Critic’s tool box

From the principles and strategies of New Criticism, which ideas will help you analyze the text to support your focus/interpretation? It could be one or several, but the point here is to use the “tools” of New Critical theory to focus your interpretation of Poe’s “Black Cat” as a New critic would.
List of potential New Critical tools: (hint: you defined these for Quiz 3)

organic unity
paradox (18)
ambiguity (18)
tension (18)
irony (19)
patterns (repetition)
symbols?

Some Examples,
Using Poe’s notion of the “Single Effect” and/or the concept of organic unity, what is the “single effect” you see as unifying the story? How do the different aspects of the story work together to create this effect? (ambiquity in character, paradox in setting, symbolism of cat, etc….) The essay asks you to draw on four passages to support your interpretation, but you could analyze two symbols and two ambiguities, or four different aspects of the story. Remember, unity means it all works together.
If you find the narrator’s focus on the cat(s) to be the key to the story’s meaning, then perhaps you want to use the tools of symboland repetition/pattern to support your analysis. What is the cat(s) symbolic of, and how do the repeated focus on the cat(s) demonstrate the story’s meaning?
Perhaps you feel that the story is about the state of mind of the narrator, then maybe you would look at ambiguities of the character: is he sane/insane? Telling the truth or lying? Does he take responsibility? Where and how? All the answers here may beambiguous (evidence both ways). Why would Poe create this kind of character? What does it demonstrate? Maybe you want to discuss the Tension between these things.
Perhaps you want to focus on the characteristics of the narrator (violence, anger, blame, guilt, etc) or the difference between what the narrator tells the reader and the evidence Poe (the author) provides. Is the narrator’s reasoning logical? What is the difference between what he tells you about himself and what you perceive via his narrative, etc. In any case, you could examine where and how Poe represents this difference (throughout the story and your analysis, with this focus would support an interpretation grounded here. You could use the tools of paradox, tension, irony, 
enter the critical concepts or tools/terms you are going to use
Task three: the major claim
Now that you have a claim about the meaning of the story (task 1) and you have identified the critical tools you’ll use to demonstrate this claim, it’s time to put the two together into a statement claiming your interpretation. In other words, it’s time to write a provisional thesis. Blending the elements of task one and task two…
enter your provisional thesis.
Task four: the evidence
What will you use as evidence?
Now go back through the story for key passages where you see what you’re focusing on. What are the four best moments in the story that prove or demonstrate what you’re saying is evident? So, if the paradox between sanity/insanity is key or good/evil, or guilt/pride, whatever it is, then where do you see this in the story? Where is it most clear and where does it best show what you are talking about?
enter in the six quotes/passages that you see as key. Your essay may not use all six, but at this point they are necessary.

Task five: the minor or sub-claims
What does each piece of evidence demonstrate/show you that supports your major claim? Or said differently, how do you see each quote as part of the interpretation? What do you see as happening in each quote? These will become topic sentences for body paragraphs. For example, if you have six quotes that are showing the faults in the narrator, maybe the ambiguities between sanity/insanity of the narrator, then what specifically do you see each quote as showing? Does one show a “sane” narrator, another a narrator who is questionable, another a narrator who is contradictory, another a narrator who seems not to know right from wrong, another a narrator who flat out lies? This is what you would write above each quote.-
above each quote, write a claim stating what the quote shows

Task six: copy and paste your completed work into the Lab 2 submission text box
Lab 2 Worksheet – copy and paste below frame into any document, fill out the components, paste it backinto text box for assignment submission.
Task One: I believe this story is about…
Task Two: The tools of New Criticism that best uncover/support this interpretation are…. And how….
Task Three: putting together Tasks one and two, what is your provisional thesis?
Task Four: what are the six passages where this is most evident? (include page numbers to help you return) With
Task Five: what is your claim about each passage? Specifically how does it support your thesis? Write your assertion above each quote entered above. These are drafts of your topic sentences.