“Prophet Still, if Bird or Devil”: (Mis)Reading Avian Species in Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Abstract Other than “The Raven,” little critical attention has been devoted to birds in Poe’s writings, even though he refers to several varieties of them in his poetry and such creatures figure prominently in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. This article does not proffer a comprehensive new reading of Poe’s only novel. Rather, it examines how Pym and other characters misread birds and argues that it behooves us to consider them while grappling with major questions surrounding the narrative, namely, what the novel may be saying about race, whether it possesses or lacks structural integrity, and how we might read its puzzling final image. After addressing the prophetic function of birds in classical literature and the Bible, this article discusses how birds in Poe’s Pym act as omens, how characters misinterpret them, how they underscore the contrast between black and white, and how they inspire human language. Finally, it asserts that the novel assigns a pivotal role to the penguin, which serves as a synthesizing presence in a text filled with apparent contradictions.