Edgar Allan Poe's The Man That Was Used Up

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Man that was Used Up” discusses the role of a war hero in society through Brevet Brigadier General John A.B.C. Smith. Due to his efforts in the Bugaboo war, Smith is idolized by the community. However, Smith’s respected and remarkable ego is only an illusion since the war has taken Smith’s true identity, and Poe satirizes some political figures in his lifetime through the characterization of General Smith. Throughout the story, Brevet Brigadier General John A.B.C. Smith is highly venerated by the members of society. Every feature of General Smith is idealized, ranging from his “rich” voice to his “exceedingly large and lustrous” eyes. The narrator even finds difficulty to describe Smith’s robust figure without becoming enthusiastic. Smith was respected by everybody, and was an “especial favorite” with the ladies due to his courage. He became famous for his valiant efforts in the Bugaboo and …show more content…
Since nobody tells the narrator about Smith and the war, he calls upon the General himself for the answers. The narrator urgently rushes into Smith’s bedroom before he is dressed. The narrator finds a “large and exceedingly odd looking bundle of something” lying on the floor. In a rather frustrated mood, the narrator kicks the bundle, and it responds back in one of the “funniest little voices” the narrator has stumbled upon. After being assembled, piece by piece, by his slave Pompey, the bundle is revealed to be General Smith himself. Smith’s real form is realistically a “bundle of something.” Without the all the external body parts, Smith is not even recognizable as a human after the Bugaboo war. The savage and vicious wounds left by the barbaric Indians on General Smith have taken away his true identity. The war has dehumanized General Smith to a point where he must be assembled part by part, almost as if he was a