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Sunday Smiles
Though Edgar Allan Poe is arguably better known today for his short works, “Pym of Nantucket” is one of the central pieces in his oeuvre. Ostensibly a seafaring adventure story, his innate understanding of psychology and use of Biblical symbolism and allegory elevated the work. Indeed, it became highly influential on countless major writers that came after, from Herman Melville — who drew from it in writing “Moby-Dick” — to Sigmund Freud, for whom it demonstrated aspects of what he would later call psychoanalysis.
The story tells the tale of the titular Pym, a stowaway on a whaling ship. Over the course of the gripping tale, Pym and the crew face a barrage of existential threats including mutiny, storms, shark infested waters, and shipwreck. Like much of Poe’s work, “Pym of Nantucket” also contains supernatural elements, specifically a horrifying ghost ship covered in corpses. But for many readers the most bloodcurdling episode of the novel happens after the crew has been shipwrecked, when, having run out of food, they have to resort to cannibalism to survive.
