The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket · Chapter
XXV explained
Pym, Peters, and Nu-Nu drift southward in a frail canoe after escaping Tsalal, encountering increasingly strange phenomena—warm seas, milky water, ashy precipitation, and a vast white curtain in the southern sky.
What happens
Pym, Peters, and Nu-Nu drift southward in a frail canoe after escaping Tsalal, encountering increasingly strange phenomena—warm seas, milky water, ashy precipitation, and a vast white curtain in the southern sky. Nu-Nu dies of terror, and the narrative ends with the boat rushing into a chasm before a gigantic shrouded white figure.
Themes in this chapter
The Sublime and Antipodal World
The journey into the Antarctic void presents a sublime, antipodal landscape of warm seas, milky water, and a silent cataract, defying known geography.
The Unknown and Cosmic Horror
The inexplicable phenomena—ashy powder, soundless winds, and the shrouded figure—evoke cosmic terror and the limits of human understanding.
Liminality and Transformation
Pym and Peters experience a dreamlike numbness and physical transformation as they cross into an unknown realm, culminating in the vision of the white figure.
Characters to notice
- Arthur Gordon Pym
Narrator; describes the journey southward, the strange phenomena, and his growing numbness.
- Dirk Peters
Companion; speaks little, shows apathy and an unfathomable expression as they approach the cataract.
- Nu-Nu
Captive from Tsalal; terrified of white linen, dies of fear as they near the white curtain.
Key passages
“We now found ourselves in the wide and desolate Antarctic Ocean, in a latitude exceeding eighty-four degrees, in a frail canoe, and with no provision but the three turtles.”
Pym and his companions are adrift in the Antarctic Ocean above 84°S, with only three turtles for food.
Sets the stage for their desperate southward journey.
“We resolved to steer boldly to the southward, where there was at least a probability of discovering other lands, and more than a probability of finding a still milder climate.”
They decide to head south, hoping to find land and a warmer climate.
Reflects the contemporary belief in a warm polar sea.
“The whole ashy material fell now continually around us, and in vast quantities. The range of vapor to the southward had arisen prodigiously in the horizon, and began to assume more distinctness of form. I can liken it to nothing but a limitless cataract, rolling silently into the sea from some immense and far-distant rampart in the heaven.”
A fine ashy substance falls constantly, and a vast, silent cataract of vapor dominates the southern horizon.
Describes the surreal, apocalyptic landscape.
“And now we rushed into the embraces of the cataract, where a chasm threw itself open to receive us. But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow.”
They plunge into the cataract as a chasm opens, and a gigantic white shrouded figure appears before them.
The climactic, ambiguous ending of the narrative.