During the mid nineteenth century, it was ludicrous to think of putting a man in jail for abusing his wife and children. Many reformers feared that drunkenness, particularly the increasing prevalence of binge drinking, was a threat to the prosperity of the country. The Temperance Movement was founded to press this cause, first of moderation in drink. Than came about the Washingtonians, a group of that pledged total abstinence from alcohol to become “sober, industrious men, with their families again around them, and again happy” (Arthur 42) who changed the meaning of temperance. They changed the meaning of temperance movement by achieving sobriety though the confessional narrative of which T.S. Arthur, the most famous writer of the temperance genre writes about. Arthur promotes the temperance movement by writing his famous anthology, Six Nights with the Washingtonians, which are true stories about inebriates reforming. In contrast, Edgar Allen Poe, a “hopeless drunkard” (Crowley 29) writes The Black Cat to be a parody that shows the heinous effects alcohol. The motif of the typical temperance narrative conforms to the arch of which is used on the cover of John Crowley’s narrative, Drunkard’s Progress. The beginnings of the usual temperance story talks how happy there were or their “love of liquor” (Arthur 43?). Conversely, a different approach is made by Poe, which presents strong evidence why The Black Cat is a parody. Indeed, Poe begins The Black Cat with a recap of the circumstances which brought about his execution by saying, “These events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed me”, then claiming, “mad I am not” to give the readers a sense what brought about his execution was normal. Subsequently, Poe begins to tell us of his childhood: getting harassed because of his “docility” and being the joke of his companions because of his “tenderness of heart” (Poe 1). Perhaps this causes Poe to not have friends, but he did ass