Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism in many of his poems and short stories to create two levels of understanding—a literal understanding and a deeper, figurative understanding. Identify a symbol in "The Raven" and "The Masque of the Red Death." Explain what the symbol's hidden meaning is and what effect the symbol has on the work overall.

While this symbol, can mean many things to people in the raven it symbolizes never ending mourning and in the masquerade of the red death it symbolizes terror

Explanation:

Childhood has a magical quality that slips away

Explanation:

Richie had a great deal of energy as a child, one which he would have thought(if he ever did) would perpetually remain in him.  As he grows to become an adult, the great amount of energy he felt in his childhood began to dwindle.

The tone of the passage expresses how the quality of man's energy and vigor declines with age. This is evident from the last paragraph; "The energy you drew on so extravagantly when you were a kid, the energy you thought would never exhaust itself—that slipped away somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four, to be replaced by something much duller . . . purpose, maybe, or goals . . . ."

Option b is the best theme for the passage.