The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket · Chapter
Chapter XX explained
The crew of the Jane Guy, trusting the apparent friendship of the Tsalal islanders, establish a market and negotiate with Too-wit for the collection of bêche-de-mer.
What happens
The crew of the Jane Guy, trusting the apparent friendship of the Tsalal islanders, establish a market and negotiate with Too-wit for the collection of bêche-de-mer. During a visit to the village, they enter a narrow gorge where an ambush is set; a fissure in the rock draws Pym, Peters, and Allen, and a sudden concussion suggests a catastrophic event.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Unreliable Narration
The apparent kindness of the Tsalal islanders is revealed as a deeply laid plan for destruction, highlighting the theme of deceptive appearances.
Race and Otherness
The savages are described as 'barbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches,' reflecting colonial fears and racial othering.
Survival and Moral Decay
The crew's trust in the natives despite the dangerous gorge setting underscores the precariousness of survival and the potential for moral collapse.
Characters to notice
- Arthur Gordon Pym
Narrator and participant; enters the fissure to examine filbert nuts.
- Dirk Peters
Accompanies Pym into the fissure and follows his order to retreat.
- Wilson Allen
Also follows Pym into the fissure; is close to the mouth when the concussion occurs.
- Too-wit
Chief of the Tsalal; leads the party through the gorge and negotiates the bêche-de-mer agreement.
- Captain Guy
Resolves to negotiate with Too-wit for building houses and collecting bêche-de-mer.
- Jane Guy
The schooner anchored near shore; six men left aboard with defensive precautions.
Key passages
“A very short while sufficed to prove that this apparent kindness of disposition was only the result of a deeply laid plan for our destruction, and that the islanders for whom we entertained such inordinate feelings of esteem, were among the most barbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches that ever contaminated the face of the globe.”
It quickly became clear that the friendly behavior of the islanders was a carefully crafted scheme to destroy us, and that these people we had admired were actually some of the most savage and treacherous beings on earth.
Reveals the theme of deception and the narrator's retrospective judgment.
“I was suddenly aware of a concussion resembling nothing I had ever before experienced, and which impressed me with a vague conception, if indeed I then thought of anything, that the whole foundations of the solid globe were suddenly rent asunder, and that the day of universal dissolution was at hand.”
I felt a shock unlike anything I had ever known, making me feel as if the earth itself was breaking apart and the end of the world had come.
Describes the catastrophic event in the gorge.