Both Irving Washington’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket feature protagonists who encounter isolated societies as foreigners. In Pym, this is Arthur, the American who comes across the village of Tsalalians in uncharted Antarctica. In Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane, a native of Connecticut, is the outsider trying to integrate into the small Dutch town in New York. Though Pym and Crane show interest in these communities, they are each driven out by their inhabitants. Their inability to assimilate into these factions speaks to the heightened fear postcolonial Americans had of foreigners, along with the fear foreigners had of America itself. Both Poe and Washington manipulate conventions of Gothic literature to communicate this.
In its secluded geography and cliquey social atmosphere, colonial New England’s antiquated traditionalism has allowed folklore to thrive and persuade their illusion of cultural superiority. Though traces of this behavior are still undeniably present today, there’s no doubt that these colonial sub-societies were more exaggeratedly tight-knit than they are now. Even with the start of Manifest Destiny and the end of colonial America, which technically came around 1776 when America gained its freedom from England, the hyper-stratified communities the United States inherited remained in New England. Washington recognized this lack of change in the colonial states and attempted to convey how it encouraged local fables in Sleepy Hollow, “The neighbourhood is rich in legendary treasures that succeeded. Local tales and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered, long settled retreats (1078)”.
That said, the tight-knit nature of these Dutch communities encouraged far more than just ghost stories. The superficial idolization of material wealth and status-based worth characterized post-colonial New England, another obstacle to foreigners considering that many who immigrated to America did so in poverty with hopes of achieving wealth and its corresponding social status. Along that line of exaggerated identity politics, such communities would persecute outsiders from a material standpoint. By this, I mean that the importance of one's material wealth took on particular import since it was observed socially as an extension of character. Perhaps most telling of a man's nature in this society is, therefore, the estate he keeps, as Ichabod observes and fancies, "As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he rolled his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands… which surrounded the warm tenement of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit these domains, and his imagination expanded with the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash… His busy fancy already realized his hopes, and presented to him the blooming Katrina, with a whole family of children (1067)." The denotation of "enraptured" as "intense joy" speaks to the power land has over a man trying to integrate into the community. The connotation of "fat" in the description of the land infers that Van Tassel's estate is explicitly one of great hierarchical social value in the town. The phrase "turned into cash" implies the easy translation one makes between land and money in this material culture. Finally, the connotation of "blooming" suggests that the attraction of Katrina has not yet reached its highest point, as this will be complete once she has given him a family. That Katrina becomes most attractive as a potential wife and mother is a testament to the importance of family in terms of the community's identity politics. However, it's also important to note that any mention of the feeling Ichabod has for Katrina is preceded by a description of her land as if the material wealth of her allure takes priority over the potential for marital and familial harmony she might offer him. Even Ichabod's most profound feelings of love and compassion are informed by material attraction, a testament to the superficiality linked to status in such stratified colonial New England communities.
Despite Ichabod’s strong ambition to win over Katrina (arguably the most enticing bachelorette of Sleepy Hollow), his path is blocked not only by his impoverished social status but also by hometown hero Brom Bones, an outspoken enemy to outsiders. “The most formidable was a burly, roaring, roystering blade, of the name of Abraham, or, according to the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van Brunt, the hero of the country round, which rung with his feats of strength and hardihood... From his Herculean frame and great powers of limb, he had received the nickname of Brom Bones. He was famed for great knowledge and skill in horsemanship, being as dexterous on horseback as a Tartar (1069)”. Intentionally including “according to the dutch abbreviation” when describing Brom’s name communicates he is the archetype of this dutch settler, therefore suggesting that he is the personification of the town itself and its opposition to Ichabod. Because Katrina is rumored to be his lady, Brom represents the challenge that Ichabod must overcome to gain social acceptance. The physicality of Brom is exaggerated with the repetition of robust descriptors such as “burly,” “roaring,” “power,” “strength,” and “Herculean” to highlight the difficulty of overcoming this challenge for Ichabod to become a member of Sleepy Hollow.
With Brom’s character, Irving Washington inverts the trope of the typical gothic villain by turning a local, lore-fueled citizen into the demonizing entity as opposed to the invasive Ichabod Crane. Washington’s basis for doing so is evident via analysis of the simile likening Brom to a “Tartar.” The term is a historical reference to the Mongolian conquerors who were the first to master the weaponization of the bow and arrow on horseback. The simile not only portrays Brom’s incredible horse riding abilities but also draws focus to his representation of the English colonizers of America who aggressively expanded their empire, similar to how the Mongols did. Because it is implied that the “headless horseman” who scares Ichabod out of town is Brom Bones (i.e., he rides the same horse and is the most quarrelsome with Ichabod in the community), gothic conventions enter into the discussion of this villainous symbolism. In Walking through the Shadows: Ruins, Reflections, and Resistance in the Postcolonial Gothic Novel, Sheri Dennison asserts that “As we read Imperial Gothic, we find that the empire has been invaded—and that the invaders are inevitably described as monstrous. They are images of horror, shocking to a public that believes itself pure, that believes itself superior to those they have conquered (140)”. Applying Dennison’s observations to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow reveals that Washington has inverted this trope to make a statement about postcolonial American society. Since Brom Bones (the representation of the Sleepy Hollow community) is the demonizing villain instead of the outsider attempting to invade (Ichabod), Washington implies that because of the imperial colonization of America, America itself is the monster.
While some argue that the ambiguity of Washington’s ending convolutes the clarity of Sleepy Hollow’s concluding message, Dennison points out that this is a commonality of gothic literature, “We are left with no easy answers, for hope seems to mingle with despair in the postcolonial gothic novel… resolution may be reached, but it is often a contrived resolution… Postcolonial gothic is no different in its use of ambiguity, with one possible exception: postcolonial gothic thrives on ambiguity, making it part of its very content (180)”. In Sleepy Hollow, Washington’s ambiguity entertains two endings: the first being the supernatural realization of the town’s mythical lore and confirmed existence of the town’s ghastly headless rider (supporting the outsider’s fear of America), and the second entertaining the more realistic outcome (as is in line with the effort Washington exerts to depict Sleepy Hollow as a superficial, self-superiorized community) which is that Brom’ superiority, or rather the town’s itself, is intentionally contrived and that the lore and actual horror it inspires is a manifestation of the falsity of their superiority.
Gothic legend Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is another landmark postcolonial American text that delves into the horror of its country’s relentless greed and imperialism. Few cultures in gothic literature showcase the fear associated with the Whiteness of America quite like that of the exotic Tsalalians. “It was quite evident that they had never before seen any of the white race--from whose complexion, indeed, they appeared to recoil (165)”. The connotation of “recoil” insists that the Tsalalian’s fear of the White voyagers is instinctual, almost as if it were natural for an indigenous culture to assume the worst in the “White colonizers” upon the mere sight of their arrival. The Tsalalian’s inherent fear of Whiteness is further evident in their inability to touch anything white, “We could not get them to approach several very harmless objects--such as the schooner’s sails, an egg, an open book, or a pan of flour (166)”. The connotation of “harmless” infers that each person’s perception of culture is subjective; what may seem dangerous to one culture is harmless to another. In this case, though Pym and his fellow voyagers mean no harm, they are immediately perceived in this light because of their Whiteness. This characteristic may not seem dangerous to them because of their familiarity with it, but it is lethal from the perspective of an indigenous culture foreign to it.
Though it is not nearly as apparent as the Tsalalians' fear of Whiteness, there is a genuine fear of foreigners, which Pym discloses in his description of the Tsalalians. "They were about the ordinary stature of Europeans, but of a more muscular and brawny frame, their complexion a jet black, with thick and long wooly hair. They were clothed in skins of an unknown black animal, shaggy and silky (163)". The repetition of diction like "muscular" and "brawny" creates a sense of physical intimidation coming from Pym's perspective. The emphasized fixation on the physical prowess of the natives implies not only Pym's fear of their animalism but also a subconscious mental superiority over the indigenous culture automatically perceived to be less evolved. This concept is furthered by the connotation of "animal," suggesting that the Tsalalians are lower beings than Pym by his shipmates' standards. Connotation is used again with "jet black," a not-so-discreet comparison of the Tsalalians to indigenous dark-skinned cultures invaded and colonized by White Europeans (i.e., Native Americans, Africans, etc.). These cultures are subliminally alluded to as "animals," referencing the White colonizers' perceived superiority over indigenous people. In the context of historical bloodshed associated with colonization, it is, by extension, interpretable that the White colonizers fear the foreigners from the standpoint of potential warfare. But why, then, if Poe's trying to impress a sense of perceived White superiority over the two other races, would he describe their stature as "European"? It is here that Pym's instinctive fear, as well as that of the rest of the prejudiced population of postcolonial America, is illustrated.
In Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity and the American Gothic, Justin Edwards elaborates on how the Tsalalians are representations of the postcolonial fear of interracial breeding and the perceived loss of American identity equated with it. “The fear of miscegenation became a strong argument in favor of black removal; it was thought that the racial mixing would mean a corruption of American “Whiteness” and the loss of an “original” American identity (4-5)”. As this novel came out in 1838, there was a growing sense in the nation that America would soon lose the “Whiteness” Edwards refers to above. Though the start of the civil war was still over twenty years away, non-whites were beginning to make strides toward their freedom in America. Some Whites also wanted this, but many still longed to preserve their antiquated colonial traditions, as evidenced by the overwhelming division of the Union and the Confederates. However, the reason for this separation ran deeper than simply fear of interbreeding alone. In many ways, it boiled down to a perception of the surrender of American identity to that of other cultures. And in this sense, the Tsalalians represent this fear because the mere encounter of their existence and possible coexistence with Americans threatens the supposed purity of the White postcolonial traditions, which has been the basis of the genocide of many actual indigenous peoples.
Edwards elaborates on Poe's intentional exaggeration of the Tsalalians' savage qualities as a means of emphasizing the heightened fear postcolonial Americans associate them with, "These hybrid bodies, moreover, inspire disgust and terror in the narrator: the Tsalalians are called "the most barbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches that ever contaminated the face of the globe" (205)... Pym states that the Tsalalians are "the lowest of the savage races with which mankind are acquainted" (195). It is glaringly apparent that Pym's characterization of the Tsalalians as "the lowest of the savages" is grossly exaggerated. It's not that the Tsalalians aren't objectively more primitive by appearance and disposition than Pym and his shipmates, but to regard them so hyper-judgmentally is an articulation of this dramatically heightened fear America's White colonizers have of foreigners. As has been stated, this instinctual fear Pym experiences is not only based on the potential of bloodshed between the two parties (which in the context of the history of American colonization symbolically justifies the Tsalalian aversion to Whiteness), but also in the subconscious concern for the loss of White identity that coexistence with foreign cultures imply. However, Edwards quickly reminds us that Pym's fright is not unrivaled: "Within the gothic structure of Poe's narrative, Nu-Nu's fear of Whiteness inverts the gothic trope in which blackness, not Whiteness, inspires terror. If Nu-Nu fears Whiteness as Pym fears blackness, then perhaps aversion to blackness is merely a cultural construction, with no essentialist basis (9)". As Edwards points out, Poe manipulates the conventionally gothic fear of Blackness by inverting it. By doing so, he suggests (like in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) that the fear of Blackness is similar to that of Whiteness; it depends on the story's perspective. Therefore, in the context of America's colonization and its many indigenous casualties, Poe asserts that foreigners are particularly afraid of White Americans, just as those foreigners are particularly afraid of Americans.
Much controversy surrounds The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket for Poe’s depiction of Blackness and the potentially racist sentiments it inspires. And while such characterizations are undoubtedly problematic, education about the deconstruction of this accurately postcolonial American prejudice and the potential for such learning to prevent future racism is often overlooked. As Mat Johnson describes in his novel Pym, “If we can identify how the pathology of Whiteness was constructed, then we can learn how to dismantle it” (14). While both The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket remain memorable for their ingenuity in storytelling, their contribution to the gothic genre will cement their position in the history of literature. And what they enabled for future writers directly relates to what Poe addresses in his only novel. His upbringing in Virginia at a time long-before slavery’s abolishment in the states imbues Poe with a unique literary perspective into the horrors of the subconscious antebellum Whiteness via the American slave trade. Many naively claim that these experiences informed the prejudice present in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, but the truth is that they, and he, combatted it. As stated above, Poe intentionally counters the genuinely hyper-racist fear postcolonial Americans had of foreigners at the time with the corresponding fear foreigners had of postcolonial Americans. By maintaining the accuracy of the reality of his epoch while simultaneously offering an indigenous perspective previously unseen in American literature, Poe manipulates and inverts genre tropes to portray foreign cultures as untrusting victims of American colonization rather than enemies of it. Toni Morrison, one of the most celebrated African-American authors in the country’s history, has herself written that “no early American writer is more important to the concept of American Africanism than Poe” (32). What Poe and Washington were able to do for the American gothic genre with both of their stories questioned the authoritative forces socially presumed to be ethical by examining the horrific cross-cultural fragmentation forged by American colonization. In this sense, they were some of the first to suggest that early America was not the superior haven of freedom it advertised itself as, nor were the peoples they colonized the savage monsters the country tried to make them out to be.
Dennison, Sheri Ann. Walking through the Shadows: Ruins, Reflections, and Resistance in the
Postcolonial Gothic Novel. 2009. Indiana U of Pennsylvania, MA thesis.
This dissertation gives in-depth analysis of Gothic literature in postcolonial English society. With literary examples ranging from Dracula to The Island of Dr. Moreau, Sheri Dennison critiques gothic texts in the context of the time period, supporting the notion that much of this genre was created by the social environment of the era. By this, I mean that gothic tropes such as ambiguous endings reflect the contrived resolutions authors give their readers at a time when the conventional “happy ending” didn’t seem possible.
Diamond, Jason. “Searching for the Headless Horseman”, Electric Lit,
https://electricliterature.com/searching-for-the-headless-horseman/, Accessed December 5, 2019.
Edwards, Justin D. Gothic Passages: Racial Ambiguity and the American Gothic. Iowa City, U of Iowa P, 2003.
This novel analyzes a number of postcolonial gothic texts in the context of their racial implications. With literary examples ranging from The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym to Running A Thousand Miles To Freedom, Justin Edwards critiques American gothic texts by focusing on their commentary on postcolonial racism and nationalism.
Johnson, Mat. Pym. Spiegel & Grau, 2011, pp. 14.
This novel satirically mirrors the journey featured in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. The extended allusion explores racial politics and identity in contemporary America, while illuminating the similar contributions Poe’s source novel offers about postcolonial race-relations.
Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. Harvard
University Press, 1992, pp. 32.
This work of literary criticism from renowned author Toni Morrison investigates major White American authors (specifically Poe) and traces the way their perceptions of Blackness influenced the evolution of social race relations.
Poe, Edgar Allen. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Harper & Brothers, 1838.
Washington, Irving. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Sketch Book, New York, C.S. Van Winkle, 1820, pp. 1058-88.