SOURCE: “‘Dust within the Rock’: The Phantasm of Meaning in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,” in Studies in the Novel, Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer, 1982, pp. 137-51.

In the following essay, Rosenzweig examines the narrative structure of Pym and contends that the narrative constitutes a unified whole, but one that attests to the impossibility of obtaining a final explanation.

In recent interpretations of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, much emphasis has been placed upon the ending of Pym's journey and the giant shrouded figure who appears in the last sentence. While critics may adopt different approaches, most seem unable to resist the lure of ascribing an illuminating meaning to both the figure and the ending. Pym's last vision has been interpreted as the acquirement of knowledge which an epistemological approach suggests, the nothingness of an existential reading, or the final rite of initiation of a mythic approach. The...