"Zero Draft Redux"

1.            The speed of the chase is often what pulls us to the edge of our seat, but winding walks of diminishing speed can be just as intriguing. To illustrate pace in such a way that the reader can actually feel the change is a difficult task. In “Man of the Crowd” Edgar Allan Poe uses quickening and dizzying descriptions of thoroughfares to emulate the narrator’s emotions creating a pace felt by the reader. This sense of pace is only constrained by Poe’s obvious use of linear time from the second paragraph onward. Throughout the tale the narrator’s descriptions alternate between focus on what is being seen and what is being done, so that during short periods in which pace is at a lull the reader is engaged in the more important aspects of the tale and can recover from the often dizzying chase.

2.            My argument is derived from formal reading of the text. I will use examples directly from the text to illustrate how Poe’s descriptions are directly connected to the overall pace of the tale. I could also apply realism, speculating that the reader would understand the complexities of what Poe details because they have most likely encountered similar instances, thus reading Poe’s wonderful descriptions could provoke the reader’s memory (i.e. the dizzying effect of the narrator trying to follow the stranger through the bazaar would have greater effect on one who has been lost in such a crowd).

3: [Note: I will cut down the quotes through heresy of parahrase as much as can be without losing the pace]

“This latter is one of the principle thoroughfares of the city, and had been very much crowded during the whole day. But, as the darkness came on, the throng momently increased; and, by the time the lamps were well lighted, two dense and continuous tides of population were rushing past the door.”(102)

            In this passage Poe uses the increasing speed of the crowd in front of the hotel to illustrate the narrators growing interest in the scene. As the, “throng momently increased,” the narrator is finished with his newspaper, beginning to look around at the scene unfolding before him, and by the time the lamps are lit he is, “filled… with a delicious novelty of emotion,” and cannot turn away from the window.

“He crossed and re-crossed the way repeatedly without apparent aim; and the press was still so thick, that, at every such movement, I was obliged to follow him closely. The street was a narrow and long one, and his course lay within it for nearly an hour, during which the passengers had gradually diminished.”(106)

“A few minutes brought us to a large and busy bazaar, with localities of which the stranger appeared well acquainted, and where his original demeanor again became apparent, as he forced his way to and fro, without aim, among the host of buyers and sellers… He hurried into the street, looked anxiously around him for an instant, and then ran with incredible swiftness through many crooked and people-less lanes, until we emerged once more upon the great thoroughfare whence we had started…”(107)

            In these passages Poe explains the narrator’s trouble in following the stranger who constantly changing pace and crossing to and fro. As such the narrator is forced to follow closely so as not to lose the stranger. However, following closer arises a sense of urgency in not getting caught, which insights tension felt by the reader.

“As he proceeded, the company grew more scattered, and his old uneasiness and vacillations were resumed. For some time he followed closely a part of some ten or twelve roisterers; but from this number one by one dropped off, until three only remained together, in a narrow and gloomy lane little frequented. The stranger paused, and, for a moment, seemed lost in thought, then, with every mark of agitation, pursued rapidly a route which brought us to the verge of the city, amid regions very different from those we had hitherto traversed.”(107-108)

            In the first half of this description we see the pace moving steadily, but slow as the stranger becomes, “lost in thought,” then suddenly take off again as the stranger makes for more crowded avenues. At the end of this description Poe uses the phrase, “hitherto traversed,” which literally means “until now traveled across” but the use of those two words turns the description into an extensive strenuous hike.

4.            During the course of the tale, linear time is one of the few things keeping the story grounded. Chronology of events cannot be argued here because the narrator, stranger and reader are moving simultaneously through a 24-hour period. This connects to Andersons explanation of a nation moving calendrically through time. In the second paragraph the narrator is reading a newspaper and from the third paragraph onward the lighting of lamps, sunrise, and shadows illustrate the changing hours.