The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The endnotes provide supplementary details on whaling vessels, a parallel account of the brig Polly's survival ordeal, historical sightings of the Auroras, clarifications on narrative chronology and geography, and observations on the black
What happens
The endnotes provide supplementary details on whaling vessels, a parallel account of the brig Polly's survival ordeal, historical sightings of the Auroras, clarifications on narrative chronology and geography, and observations on the black marl of Tsalal.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Moral Decay
The account of the brig Polly illustrates the extreme lengths of survival and the moral failure of passing ships that abandoned the starving crew.
The Unknown and Cosmic Horror
References to the grayish vapor and the black marl of Tsalal evoke the mysterious and alien nature of the Antarctic region.
Key passages
“The case of the brig Polly , of Boston, is one so much in point, and her fate, in many respects, so remarkably similar to our own, that I cannot forbear alluding to it here.”
The story of the Boston brig Polly is so relevant and similar to our own experience that I must mention it.
Pym draws a direct parallel between the Polly's ordeal and his own.
“They were passed by more than a dozen sail, one of which came so nigh them that they could distinctly see the people on deck and on the rigging looking at them; but, to the inexpressible disappointment of the starving and freezing men, they stifled the dictates of compassion, hoisted sail, and cruelly abandoned them to their fate.”
Over a dozen ships sailed close enough for the castaways to see the crews, yet each vessel heartlessly sailed on, leaving the starving men to die.
Highlights the cruelty and moral decay of those who refused to help.