I need an essay or any information about the point of view in Poe's THE GOLD BUG.....

help needed!!!!

THANX

Marjorie

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2003

Answers

The point of view is very similiar to that of Dr. watsom in the Holmes stories. The manner of his visits leads him to see the backward progress of the solution- backwards. LeGrand shows him the paper with the drawing of the gold bug he had sent away to be studied. Then he has a revelation he does not share with the narrator. Later he leads the narrator on a torturous quest to dig up a treasure. Then LeGrand explains his process of solution of the map in great detail. Thus all details as the narrator discovers them through his ingenious friend come back to the center with a speculation on the skull finishing up.

The narrator is not a manic or a genius like his friend, and more of a foil. As he spins out irony after irony, piled on puns and comic misperceptions he hardly sees any of them. the reader is allowed tolaugh and solve matters keeping one jump behind LeGrand because of the backward exposition to the narrator. LeGrand is the expositor extraordinaire and Holmes-fashion reflects, acts, then explains.

The mastery in the story is precisely this naive and backward recitation of discovery by an active observer with other concerns and limited perceptiveness who nonetheless is a stickler for detail and psychological analysis. Domone in another, more straightforward and direct way would change the relationship with the reader and dull the irony and the solution process. Jup is a mediating other perspective to further enrich the story with mistaken irony and humor and draw out the mystery as he too participates.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2003

Thank you for the quick response. It really helped me.....

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2003