Edgar Allan Poe
An Analysis by Patrick Gadallah
Biographical Sketch
Early Life
Life and Writing career
Death and Legacy
Strangely, Poe never achieved financial success in his lifetime, but Poe left an enduring, unique, and striking Artistic Style which shocked readers in his lifetime and continue to do so into the modern day. Poe's success story and legacy cannot be quantified with currency, instead it is the Raven shaped, eerie, dark mark which he left on his readers, a mark that is not easily forgotten.
Defining Quote
"The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true."
A different Poe-int in time
21st Century Poe
Edgar Allan Pat?
Conclusions on Poe and his time period
Poe and the 19th century
A Poe-litical Cartoon
An Explaination
*Periodic Sentence
**Sentence containing participial phrase
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Context
Themes
One of the themes Poe explores in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is the psychological damage caused by death. Pym seeking an adventure with his friend is subjected to several accounts of death from murder to starvation. Pym's personality undergoes a significant change as a result. He goes from being a socially upright and kind of proud youth to a deteriorating boy who's only purpose became to survive.
A theme that also relates to this is becoming savage for survival which Poe introduces in the book too. Poe through Pym as well as the Natives Pym encounters on the voyage shows. Pym is forced to go from being civil to being savage for survival. Poe shows this by showing that every savage thing Pym does saves his life. Pym murders to save his life and even on one instance resorts to cannibalism to avoid starvation. The villagers describe in the book too show survival through savagery. They brutally murder the ship crew with which Pym travels in order to ensure their own survival.