The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym becomes illusory in all facets of its plot--the exposition, the body, and, most notably, the conclusion; this lack of any truly concrete aspects gives the work a liminal, apparitious quality. The work embarks with a far-fetched preface describing Poe as the editor of the work, simply giving form to the account of Pym, the true author. As Pym is in the storage hold beyond the wits of the sailors, On their voyage, they are literally in the middle of the ocean, as far from concrete as Poe could write. Even when their position in the ocean is narrowed to somewhere extremely southern, Poe undermines this apparent solidity, placing them in such a previously impenetrable realm (the capital-S South Pacific), and by questioning and disproving previous expeditions in this area and the islands discovered; this effect is magnified when Poe creates three previously undiscovered islands in the area.
Needless to say, when the Jane Guy lands and unloads on the islands, later named Tsalal, the comfort that had enjoyed when they saw human figures was once again pulled from beneath them when they saw the color of the people: black. Poe takes an extra effort to describe their complexion as "jet black," in order to differentiate these Tsalalians from Africans, who we would typically refer to as being black. The inhabitants of Tsalal are not the only unsettling facet of the island; water, one of the basic necessities for life, which the men of the Grampus and Jane Guy have already been deprived of, is perturbed as well. The speaker describes,
At first sight, and especially in cases where little declivity was found, it bore resemblance, as regards consistency, to a thick infusion of gum arabic in common water. But this was only the least remarkable of its extraordinary qualities. It was not colourless, nor was it of any uniform colour--presenting to the eye, as it flowed, every possible shade of purple; like the hues of a changeable silk (Poe 346).
In this quote, there are multiple of comparisons used to describe the water. In stating its similarity to "a thick infusion of gum arabic in common water," the speaker does not separate the experience of the unusual water from the sailors' preconceived schema of what water is; that is, the speaker assimilates the new water into 'normal' water instead of accommodating it as its own identity. In doing so, he furthers in the audience's mind the fact that they are fully cognizant of their disconnect from humanity, which makes the prevalence of the connect increasingly tantalizing. Next, why, in a symbolic sense, is the color of the water purple? There's the royal meaning behind the shade; another meaning could see purple as a composite of blue--the color of the sea they've seen for months on end--and red--the color of blood, representing the savagery of the Tsalalians. Finally, the simile compares the varying hues to changeable silk, an object with a foreign connotation, due to the Asian origin and its relation to these Americans, and this again increases the prevalence of the disconnect. All of these devices, with the purpose of separating their current experience from what they know as their lives' reality, employ strikingly familiar points of reference to exacerbate their distance from the civilized world.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, while being Poe's only novels, provides a plethora of discrepancies and idiosyncrasies to dissect, and this is simply my take on a minutia of the work.
Needless to say, when the Jane Guy lands and unloads on the islands, later named Tsalal, the comfort that had enjoyed when they saw human figures was once again pulled from beneath them when they saw the color of the people: black. Poe takes an extra effort to describe their complexion as "jet black," in order to differentiate these Tsalalians from Africans, who we would typically refer to as being black. The inhabitants of Tsalal are not the only unsettling facet of the island; water, one of the basic necessities for life, which the men of the Grampus and Jane Guy have already been deprived of, is perturbed as well. The speaker describes,
At first sight, and especially in cases where little declivity was found, it bore resemblance, as regards consistency, to a thick infusion of gum arabic in common water. But this was only the least remarkable of its extraordinary qualities. It was not colourless, nor was it of any uniform colour--presenting to the eye, as it flowed, every possible shade of purple; like the hues of a changeable silk (Poe 346).
In this quote, there are multiple of comparisons used to describe the water. In stating its similarity to "a thick infusion of gum arabic in common water," the speaker does not separate the experience of the unusual water from the sailors' preconceived schema of what water is; that is, the speaker assimilates the new water into 'normal' water instead of accommodating it as its own identity. In doing so, he furthers in the audience's mind the fact that they are fully cognizant of their disconnect from humanity, which makes the prevalence of the connect increasingly tantalizing. Next, why, in a symbolic sense, is the color of the water purple? There's the royal meaning behind the shade; another meaning could see purple as a composite of blue--the color of the sea they've seen for months on end--and red--the color of blood, representing the savagery of the Tsalalians. Finally, the simile compares the varying hues to changeable silk, an object with a foreign connotation, due to the Asian origin and its relation to these Americans, and this again increases the prevalence of the disconnect. All of these devices, with the purpose of separating their current experience from what they know as their lives' reality, employ strikingly familiar points of reference to exacerbate their distance from the civilized world.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, while being Poe's only novels, provides a plethora of discrepancies and idiosyncrasies to dissect, and this is simply my take on a minutia of the work.
Works Cited
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings. New York: Bantam Books, 2004. Print.
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