The Edgar Allan Poe of The Man Who Was Poe is an alcoholic whose heavy drinking makes him abusive and delusional—he frequently mistakes people for the spirits of the dead. His alcoholism is ruining his life, making him seem like a lowlife to many who meet him. His emotional intensity is almost like insanity, wherein he imagines amazing events in his surroundings, but this socially acceptable artistic temperament is distorted by his alcoholic hazes, and he often forgets what he has been doing. As a portrait of how alcohol abuse can destroy even a great mind, Avi's Poe is a striking figure—one unlikely to make alcohol abuse appear to be anything better than stupid, and often downright sickening.