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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage is the engine of Poe's hoax-craft, copied straight from a supposed 'modern history of a voyage to the South Seas.' Notice the flat, procedural exactness — the depths in feet, the inch-long incision, the precise sequence of washing, boiling, burying for four hours, and drying. Poe pauses an adventure that will end in massacre to give the reader a tradesman's recipe, and that very dryness is the trick: by writing the fantastic voyage in the verifiable tone of a commercial manual, he lends the whole tale the authority of fact. Copying it shows how documentary precision, not excitement, is what makes Poe's impossible world feel real.
The biche de mer is generally taken in three or four feet of water; after which they are brought on shore, and split at one end with a knife, the incision being one inch or more, according to the size...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how Too-wit keeps his word and supplies fresh provisions that cure the sick crew, while the two sides establish a friendly market and trade for biche de mer; how Captain Guy bargains with Too-wit to build curing-houses and leave three men behind while the schooner sails south; how the narrator pauses for a long, documentary account of biche de mer and its curing; how, after many amicable days, the crew goes to take leave and a hundred of Too-wit's men meet them unarmed because 'all are brothers'; how the crew marches into a soapstone gorge with islanders before and behind; and how the chapter ends in a sudden concussion the narrator likens to the dissolution of the world. Identify the moment you find most quietly ominous and defend your choice.
Discussion Questions
- At the leave-taking a hundred of Too-wit's men meet the crew unarmed, and Too-wit explains there is no need of arms because 'all are brothers.' What might that unarmed welcome really accomplish, and why? Use details from the chapter.
- For many days Too-wit's people trade fairly, help build 'with alacrity,' and give goods 'frequently without price.' How might that steady generosity change the crew's judgment, and what does it make possible? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
With stubborn, unyielding persistence.
Item 2
Too great to be counted or measured.
Item 3
To carry on or pursue an undertaking to completion.
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Critical Thinking
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