Years before Herman Melville crafted his famous novel, Moby Dick, Edgar Allan Poe published his very own novel which deals with sea exploration; it is titled, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Interestingly enough, Poe, himself, was not too happy with his novel, he describes to William E. Burton in a letter, that his novel is “a very silly book” (“Edgar Allan Poe to…”). Within the novel, Poe (or supposedly, Pym) writes about a long and tragic sea expedition, an expedition which at first seemed harmless, that is, until mutiny and cannibalism made their way into the plot. Pym is overwhelmingly judgmental towards people who are not white. Poe’s underlying message in his novel is that skin color determines personal judgment and fear.
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When Pym and his other crew members first meet the mysterious people, Pym notes, “It was quite evident that they had never before seen any of the white race” (337). The savages presented themselves in a “friendly manner,” but they were clearly frightened by, “harmless objects—such as the schooner 's sails, an egg, an open book, or a pan of flour” (338). White objects spook the savages and confuse them. In simplistic terms, anything white terrified the savages. The reason white scared them is because they are used to most things being black. The land they lived on held “no light-colored substances of any kind” (369). Most of the animals are black, and everything on the islands are black or dark-colored. The teeth of the savages were black, as well (375). The water is even different and described as being “made up of a number of distinct veins, each of a distinct hue, [the veins] did not commingle” and “their cohesion was perfect in regard to their own particles among themselves, and imperfect in regard to neighbouring veins” (340). The detail of the water being described as “perfect” when each of the veins are separated can symbolize how people of different race are meant to be separated in order to be pure. Once the colors are mixed they become imperfect. This can represent some form of chaos rather than …show more content…
The savages are then described by Pym as, “the most barbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches that ever contaminated the face of the globe” (349). Pym manages to escape with Peters and a native named Nu-Nu. They leave the islands in one of the canoes of the savages. They go further towards the South Pole and as they do, the atmosphere begins to change. The water became warm and it turned into a “milky consistency and hue” (374). The sky becomes a “sullen darkness” (376). The following is the last account made by Pym, “But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow” (376). Nu-Nu, surely enough, is not alive for the encounter with the white figure. The white figure, therefore, scared Nu-Nu to death. The novel then ends suddenly with no
When Pym and his other crew members first meet the mysterious people, Pym notes, “It was quite evident that they had never before seen any of the white race” (337). The savages presented themselves in a “friendly manner,” but they were clearly frightened by, “harmless objects—such as the schooner 's sails, an egg, an open book, or a pan of flour” (338). White objects spook the savages and confuse them. In simplistic terms, anything white terrified the savages. The reason white scared them is because they are used to most things being black. The land they lived on held “no light-colored substances of any kind” (369). Most of the animals are black, and everything on the islands are black or dark-colored. The teeth of the savages were black, as well (375). The water is even different and described as being “made up of a number of distinct veins, each of a distinct hue, [the veins] did not commingle” and “their cohesion was perfect in regard to their own particles among themselves, and imperfect in regard to neighbouring veins” (340). The detail of the water being described as “perfect” when each of the veins are separated can symbolize how people of different race are meant to be separated in order to be pure. Once the colors are mixed they become imperfect. This can represent some form of chaos rather than …show more content…
The savages are then described by Pym as, “the most barbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches that ever contaminated the face of the globe” (349). Pym manages to escape with Peters and a native named Nu-Nu. They leave the islands in one of the canoes of the savages. They go further towards the South Pole and as they do, the atmosphere begins to change. The water became warm and it turned into a “milky consistency and hue” (374). The sky becomes a “sullen darkness” (376). The following is the last account made by Pym, “But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow” (376). Nu-Nu, surely enough, is not alive for the encounter with the white figure. The white figure, therefore, scared Nu-Nu to death. The novel then ends suddenly with no