Plot Summary of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
"This is Poe's one (unfinished) novel, a strange tale of adventure and hardship on the high seas. With the help of his friend Augustus, young Pym stows away on the Grampus, which is almost immediately subject to a brutal mutiny. Violence and terrible storms leave Arthur, Augustus, a few others stranded on the floating wreckage of the ship for weeks on end. Attempts to retrieve edible materials from locked quarters below the waterline, and a little cannibalism, enable a couple men to survive until rescue by the Jane Guy.
That ship is headed for Antarctica, to find a route that will come closest to the South Pole. Far beyond where any Western ship has gone, the crew of the Jane Guy make contact with friendly primitives who turn murderously treacherous. Though most of his shipmates are slaughtered, Pym does everything he can to stay alive and escape."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of story
- 19th century
Life of a profession:
- sailor
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Exploring into the wild
Yes
kind of story
- water adventure
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a substantial amount
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 9 (quite a lot)
Ice Caps/Sea?
Yes
Where?
- Ocean
- South Pole
Water?
Yes
Water:
- lifeboat
- lost at sea
- feeding sharks
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Unusual Style:
- written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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