Poe and Cormier: The Necessary Besting of Immaturity in "The Masque of Red Death" and "The Moustache" Anonymous 11th Grade

The Masquerade of the Red Death and the Moustache, by Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Cormier, are two short-stories that describe a common theme through similar rhetoric. In the Masquerade of Red Death, a wealthy young prince by the name of Prospero decides to shield himself and his friends from a plague that has affected his kingdom, only to die an inevitable death upon the arrival of the masked “Red Death.” In The Moustache, the protagonist, a young man by the name of Mike, is afraid of visiting his grandmother, afraid to see her worsening condition in a nursery home. The main theme of both stories revolves around besting immaturity, shown in multiple cases through Prince Prospero’s confrontation with death and Mike’s shaving of his moustache, respectively. Although both cases may be seemingly different on the surface, the common theme is intertwined through both stories such that they can be compared as well as differentiated. Through Poe’s and Cormier’s effective use of meaningful diction and heavy tone, the two authors convey that immaturity must be overcome in order to cease the suppression of logical and moral duties.

Prince Prospero and Mike both begin their respective stories as naive, only taking action on what they...