The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket · Chapter
XXIV explained
Pym and Peters, starving and desperate, attempt a harrowing descent down a soapstone cliff using improvised pegs and handkerchief ropes.
What happens
Pym and Peters, starving and desperate, attempt a harrowing descent down a soapstone cliff using improvised pegs and handkerchief ropes. Pym nearly falls due to a vertiginous longing for the abyss, but Peters saves him. After reaching the bottom, they are ambushed by five savages; Peters is clubbed, and Pym fires pistols, killing two.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Moral Decay
The extreme measures taken to descend the cliff and the subsequent violent encounter with the savages highlight the primal struggle for survival.
The Sublime and Antipodal World
Pym's vertiginous experience on the cliff and the desolate, ruined landscape evoke the sublime terror of the antipodal world.
Liminality and Transformation
Pym's near-death experience and rescue mark a threshold moment, after which he feels 'a new being'.
Characters to notice
- Arthur Gordon Pym
Nearly succumbs to a vertiginous desire to fall during the cliff descent; rescued by Peters; later fires pistols at attacking savages.
- Dirk Peters
Ingeniously engineers the descent by cutting holes and driving pegs; saves Pym from falling; later clubbed by savages in an ambush.
- Richard Parker
Mentioned as having been killed earlier; his death is part of the context of the survivors' desperation.
Key passages
“The more earnestly I struggled not to think , the more intensely vivid became my conceptions, and the more horribly distinct.”
The harder I tried to suppress my thoughts, the more vivid and terrifying they became.
Pym describes the psychological torment of vertigo and the paradox of trying to avoid fearful thoughts.
“I let go at once my grasp upon the peg, and, turning half round from the precipice, remained tottering for an instant against its naked face.”
I released my hold on the peg and turned halfway, teetering on the edge of the cliff.
Pym nearly yields to the compulsion to fall, a classic symptom of acrophobia.