# Endnotes explained — The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

> Chapter companion for The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe.

## 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_narrative_of_arthur_gordon_pym_of_nantucket_se/chapters/endnotes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_narrative_of_arthur_gordon_pym_of_nantucket_se
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