How well do you have to know a Poe story to write well on it in your next paper? One important benchmark is to know the narrative structure the story. The narrative structure of a story is not immediately visible. You have to look for it. The best way to learn how to see the structure of a story, I think, is for each of you to create an outline of it. So before class tomorrow, I would like you to look back at "The Murders of the Rue Morgue" and locate what you think are the subdivisions in Poe's story and number them. Let me clarify and elaborate. I've provided a link to the story below. As we noted in class, the editor of The Annotated Poe puts an ornamental mark in the mddle of ht page dividing the story into two sections. The first section ends here:
"The narrative which follows will appear to the reader somewhat in the light of a commentary upon the propositions just advanced."
In some editions, no mark appears.
The first section is composed of three paragraphs and inified by the question of analyzing the analytical. THE mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. It will found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic. One count the epigraph as a subdivision.This sentence divides the narrative in two: "The narrative which follows will appear to the reader somewhat in the light of a commentary upon the propositions just advanced." You could think of subdivisions in terms of plot and also in terms of narrration: you could trace the plot by describing the story to yourselves by saying something like "In section 1A, this happens, and then this happens in 1B, and then this happens . . ., etc." Each time something happens, each time you find a plot development, you will see a new subdivision appear. Or you could pay attention to the narration, focusing on who is telling the story, when the narrator is quoting or paraphrasing, and so on. Let me repeat myself and elaborate: before class tomorrow, I would like you to look back at "The Murders of the Rue Morgue" and locate what you think are subdivisions in Poe's story based on plot or narration and number them. You will end up with an outline structured like this: 1. The problem of analzing the analytical
Use capital letters starting with "A" to mark the subdivisions followed by quotations from the text (like the one above that ends part on) that indicate where you think new subdivisions appear (we'll start with the beginning of a subdivision). If you have additional subdivisons, indicate them with lower case letters.

2. The crime and its solution
Use capital letters starting with "A" to mark the subdivisions followed by quotations from the text that indicate where you think new subdivisions appear. (we'll start with the beginning of a subdivision). I will ask all of you to send your outlines to me to the beginning of class tomorrow. If you have additional subdivisons, indicate them with lower case letters. I will bring up your outlines and use the share screen so we can compare notes.
We may or may not come to a consensus. We may have our reasons for disagreeing with one another. Or with me. There are no all purpose criteria to divide up a story. The important thing to learn before you write your paper is how to see the story's structure and give a plausible account of what you see. Then you will be able to write a good paper on it. Why? Because you will have read it very closely, closely enough, in fact, to remember much of it. You will have begun to understand the logic of the story's organization by plot and narration and be in an excellent position to investigate that logic. And then, ideally, as you write your paper, you will continue to learn and you will continue to read the story even more closely. I recommend having the text open as you write so you can go back to it as needed. After we go through your outlines, we will get to pages 61-69 of Renza's essay, ‘Poe's Secret Autobiography,’ in The American Renaissance Reconsidered, Ed. Walter Benn Michaels and Donald E. Pease (1985), esp. pp. 61-69

P.S. The online version of the story linked below does not always respect the paragraphing of Poe's story when printed. Paragaphing is also an important structure, so you may find you want to stop within a paragraph of the online version and discover, if you checked the printed version, that you have found the beginning of a paragraph.

https://www.poemuseum.org/the-murders-in-the-rue-morgue

The Murders in the Rue Morgue Facsimile of the Ms.

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” [Text-01], “Johnston” manuscript, early 1841

Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” [Text-02], Graham’s Magazine (Philadelphia, PA), vol. XVIII, no. 4, April 1841, pp. 166-179