Культурология. Горелова А.В - 28 стр.

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his background, and they were happy to use it as а weapon and а defense against
his superior intelligence. From his childhood Poe was part of а world to which
he could not really belong.
From all accounts, there was no one to understand the misery of this
situation. Certainly Mr. Allan couldn’t understand it. Не was а busy man, а
merchant piling up а fortune in the tobacco business. If he thought about it at all,
he believed the bоу owed him respect and should be grateful to him, and it made
him angry to see Edgar's moods and silent, resentful behavior. As time went on,
the boy became more difficult, with fits of anger that strained Allan’s patience.
Finally, Allan decided that the bоу was unworthy and that his nature was
essentially sinful. More and more he declined to assume а father’s responsibility
for him.
An Unfortunate Privilege. Although Allan could feel no affection for the
fatherless boy living in his house, he did agree to send him to the University of
Virginia. Certainly this would have seemed а privilege to most people, and they
could not have understood why it was, in the end, а crushing misfortune for Poe.
The University of Virginia had been founded by the deeply respected and
highly educated American President Thomas Jefferson. It was, and still is, one
of the most beautiful university campuses in the United States. To its halls came
the sons of all the wellborn and the rich of Virginia in that time.
There was one great fault in Jefferson’s idea of a university. Because of
his immense faith in democracy — а faith that has been proved right in so many
ways - Jefferson was against having "superiors", against having controllers and
masters, and he chose not to consider discipline or to provide for it. As а
consequence, many of these self-willed, hot-blooded young Virginians tended to
convert university life into а long course of drinking and gambling.
Some, in fact most, of the young men could afford this. They were
members of wealthy, established families, and nothing could destroy that
relationship. Although many of these men at the university might bring shame
on themselves, they could come home at the end. As poet Robert Frost has said,
"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."
Of course, Рое was а Virginian, too — that was what he called himself
when he was asked — and so he proceeded to act like his fellow students. Не,
too, drank and gambled. But instead of becoming wild or cheerful like the
others, he became drunk and moody. And he was no more successful as а
gambler. Very quickly he was in debt, and although there were things а
gentleman might be privileged to ignore, he was expected to pay his debts.
Such reckless behavior did not make Mr. Allan any more fond of the boy.
Since Edgar was not legally his son, Allan did not feel legally responsible for his
debts, and so he did not pay them as the other fathers did. Poe knew well that he
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