The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Pym awakens, buried in a mound of loose earth. He frees himself and then helps free Peters. Allen was killed in the blast, and they are forced to abandon his body. They determine that the ravine wall somehow collapsed while they stood inside the fissure. Following a faint glimmer of light, the men dig their way out of the collapsed wall. After emerging from the gorge, they realize that the explosion was not a natural occurrence; rather, the bed of the ravine is “entirely filled up with the chaotic ruins of more than a million tons of earth and stone that [have] been artificially tumbled into it” (129). The villagers used a continuous line of wooden stakes to take down the ravine’s walls as the sailors passed through it, and Pym and Peters are the only survivors.

From their vantage point in the mountains, Pym and Peters watch canoes full of Indigenous people row out toward the Jane Guy, which is still lying at anchor. The six sailors who had remained on board try to fight off the large group, but the ship is destroyed. The villagers take all the cargo, as well as pieces of the ship, back to shore before setting the remaining hulk on fire. Unable to get past the villagers without being noticed, Pym and Peters explore the mountains, looking for escape routes. After locating fresh spring water and collecting English filberts, they construct a temporary shelter for themselves by laying some brushwood over a crack in the ravine wall. Meanwhile, the villagers find the strange white animal carcass that the Jane Guy picked up at sea. They seem simultaneously curious, angry, and horrified by it, and a group of men soon builds stakes around it on the beach.

Pym and Peters spend another six or seven days exploring the mountains. They find a series of subterranean passages inside one of the hillsides and notice what they perceive as strange markings on one of the walls. They disagree about whether the markings are naturally occurring or humanmade. Pym also includes sketches of the layouts of the passageways that he allegedly made with a pocketbook and pencil “upon the spot” (138).

Knowing they have to leave the mountain or starve to death, Pym and Peters decide to escape by cutting steps in the face of the soapstone with their knives. During their dangerous descent, Pym pictures himself falling to his death and feels a sudden desire to fall. He faints, and Peters, who had descended first, catches him. The villagers soon see them, and a fight ensues. Peters has “great personal strength” that proves a useful defense against the attackers (144). They steal a large canoe and take one of the local men with them as a hostage.

Pym and Peters paddle into the “wide and desolate Antarctic Ocean,” heading south in hope of reaching another island (147). They notice a strange, flickering gray vapor floating on the southern horizon, and the water soon grows warmer and takes on a milky hue. They learn from their hostage, Nu-Nu, that the island they fled is called Tsalal and is part of a chain of eight islands ruled by a common king, the Tsalemon. The current becomes stronger, and a white, ash-like powder begins falling from the sky. Nu-Nu refuses to speak again, apparently overcome by an unknown terror. The gray vapor in the distance now resembles “a limitless cataract” full of “flitting and indistinct images” (150). They realize Nu-Nu died, and as they approach the gray vapor, they see an enormous human figure with white skin waiting for them.

An anonymous editor refers to the recent death of Mr. Pym in an accident but does not provide additional details about what happened. He also claims that additional chapters of the narrative were lost in the same accident. This is especially regrettable, because the government is planning an expedition to the South Pole. The fictionalized version of Poe named as editor in the Preface declined to fill in the story’s gaps. Peters lives in Illinois but cannot be located.

The editor then addresses the images that appear in Chapter 23, claiming that certain facts about them escaped Mr. Poe’s attention. When conjoined with one another in various ways, the images can form a number of words or word roots: the Ethiopian root of “to be shady”; the Arabic root of “to be white”; and the Egyptian word for “the region of the south” (154). He acknowledges that there is no consistent connection among these words but points out that the people of Tsalal all seemed deeply disturbed by white objects or animals. The text ends with a sentence that is seemingly disconnected from the rest of the note: “I have graven it within the hills, and my vengeance upon the dust within the rock” (155).