1.Among these three masterpieces, I am most impressed by The Story of an Hour. Black humor is reflected from the plot, which leaves gaps for readers to fill. At the first sight of the title “The Story of an Hour”, I was enchanted, wondering what happened on earth in an hour. Having finished reading this story, I think Mrs Mallard is the very one who needs our analyzing. She is a typical sentimental lady, who desires for true love, freedom. It is not hard to conclude that her husband is ignorant, a purely workaholic, who is dominant and cares little about her wife. To some degree, their relationship is neither harmonious nor intimate, depressing atmosphere always covers them. We know that when Mrs Mallard got the news that her husband died in an accident, she was afflicted with transient sorrow, then her grief gradually decreased while she stayed alone in her room.“Free, free, free! Body and soul free”, this is the shout from her inner heart, the desire for freedom is so strong that her spouse’s death is actually a relief for her. She is quite different from those traditional women, she is gentle, well-educated and adorable. However, at last, when Mr Mallard entered the door, everyone was shocked, especially for Mrs Mallard, this is completely out of expectation. She fell into the despairing abyss, of course, almost no one could bear this huge change of mood. As a result, she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills. This story is really full of suspense, joy interweaves sorrow, I like it.2.Having read The Soft-Hearted Sioux, we can perceive the conflict of young Sioux’s inner heart. The Indian culture is quite different from the notion the mission school advocates. The law of life is their principle of lives, no can should break it, or the failure of obey it will be punished. In order to survive, killing is necessary, and what they adore is the bravest warriors of their people. Otherwise, without killing, they will be starved to death.In addition, they believe in the power of medicine-man strongly, no matter how sick or weak, they feel they could be saved by the medicine-man’s action. They are stubborn and conservative, rejecting all the new culture. They have a stereotyped thinking pattern, slandering the soft-hearted preach.To some degree, from the words of grandmother, father and the medicine-man, their concept of marriage, survival, death are shown. They still follow the law of nature in an obedient way. They can’t live in harmony with nature, it belongs to an original culture.3.A Rose for Emily, without any background knowledge, the title seems to give us a romantic impression. After learning this novel, we may find that the style of stream-of –consciousness adds much attraction to the whole story. Emily, the leading role of the text, leaves a stubborn and mighty image to me. When she was very young, she has learned much from her dominant father, she witnessed how he drove all the young men away. This father and daughter relationship plays an important role when her father is still alive, so when her father passed away, she rejected the fact and didn’t allow people to bury him. Then the story goes, it seems that Miss Emily has scouted the so called “Mr Right”, Homer Barron. But all things are beyond control, the man betrayed innocent Emily, nothing could trigger greater strike to a lady like that. She suffered a lot and took certain action, maybe got what she wanted. At last, when she was old, the loyal servant still accompanies her, she also treated those tax-askers unreasonably like her father did. When she’s dead, some secrets are revealed, we are surprised and shocked at what she did. In a word, she is traditional and stubborn, a lively tragic character in a new social system.4.In The Black Cat, the black cat symbolizes the darkness of human beings’inner heart, it is a representative of evil spirit. It is easy to find this fact from the early beginning. “Pluto was our favorite pet and playmate. The cat was a remarkably beautiful animal, entirely black and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise.” The witches, who can use magic, make people afraid and fearful. Black cats are regarded as their pets, to help and keep watch on their action. As a result, cats were given mysterious and devil images in people’s notion. With the development of plot, we can feel that the black cat possesses a darkand blue element, creating a kind of gloomy atmosphere for the short story. Death interweaves rage and dread, which is related closely to black cats. “One night, returning home, much intoxicated, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him, when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I took from my pocket a pen-knife, deliberately cut one of its eyes!”“I” was infuriated by this black creature, I became twisted and cruel. “I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty. In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. He went about the house as usual, but fled in extreme terror at my approach. I had so much of my old heart left. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation.”In this masterpiece, black cat plays a role as a devil. It made the leading character infuriated and did crazy thing. At last, I killed the annoying cat. The sense of guilt haunted me, so another black cat entered my life, which closely resembled Pluto in every respect but one. This cat had a large, although indefinite blotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast. But for my own part, I soon found a dislike to it arising within me. “During the day the creature left me no moment alone; and, in the night, I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear.” In fact, the image is like a devil, following me day and night. “One day my wife accompanied me into the cellar. The cat followed me down the steep stairs and, nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe, I aimed a blow at the animal. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan.”This incident, the direct blasting fuse was t he black cat. It is the evil spirit of my inner heart. So the black cat symbolizes the darkness of human being s’inner heart, it is a representative of evil spirit.。