Lit. Elemnts in the Black Cat and How Much Land Does a Man

In the short stories, The Black Cat and How Much Land Does A Man Need?, a third, abstract party is present that completely affects the outcome of the story without directly doing anything to the other parties/characters. In How Much Land Does A Man Need, the third party is the Devil. In The Black Cat, the third party is alcohol. How Much Land Does A Man Need? begins with a man of relative innocence, …

…the narrator is driven over the edge and gives himself away to the police in an insane fit. Both characters would not have set themselves down the wrong path that led to their undoing if not for the third party’s indirect influence. The result of it’s influence is very similar to both stories in that the character is sent down a spiral that ends in unhappiness, pain, and a some form of death.