Niesha's post on The Narrative of AGP

Superstition seems to have a huge role in this novel. Starting on page 68 we see Pym create a plan using superstition in order to defeat some of the mutineers, “By good fortune I at length hit upon the idea of working upon the superstitious terrors and guilty conscience of the mate.” In other words, Pym created a plan to dress up as Rogers (one of the mutineers who died, and body was still on board) and pretend to be a spirit who has awakened. Dirk, Augustus and Pym were desperate and were in need of a plan to try to kill off some of the men, so Pym decided to undress Roger, paint some blood over his face and stuff his body resembling Roger’s corpse. At first I laughed at this plan they had devised because I wondered to myself, who in their right mind would ever believe such a thing but then as I continued to read it was clear that these mutineers were all so crazy. Pym’s plan worked in his favor, killing off the mate, “The mate sprang up from the mattress on which he was lying, and without uttering a syllable, fell back, stone dead, upon the cabin floor, and was hurled to the leeward like a log by a heavy roll of the brig” (75).

Doing a little research of my own, I found that the mutineers seem to believe in superstition and that it comes naturally to sailors because they live in a world where they are isolated and are “at the mercy of nature and tormented psychologically by guilt” (Kathy, 2) which is clearly shown through the mate. His sudden death, and quick belief that Pym was actually Roger, proves that they don’t put meaning into seemingly meaningless things in life. They just go with the flow, believe every and anything, which benefits and helps Dirk, Augustus and Pym cut off an extra body to throw over-board.