"The Gold Bug"

 "...when the time comes for planting out the rice which has been grown in seed-beds, a party of young people of both sexes go to the forest and cut a young Karma-tree, or the branch of one. Bearing it in triumph they return dancing, singing, and beating drums, and plant it in the middle of the village dancing ground." p.397 Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough. Obviously Legrander gets better karma from the Karma-tree than the Oraons and Mundas of Bengal.

                                                        My Gold-Bug

For my Major Author's class we are reading Edgar Allan Poe and for Monday we were supposed to read "The Gold-Bug." This is a story about a man Legrander, his slave-Jupiter, and the narrator. Legrander has found a new species that Jupiter claims to be made of gold because of the weight and color. Skipping over several details...Jupiter climbs to the seventh level of limbs in a tree and goes the to edge of safety and finds a skull nailed to the tree-limb that, "de face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, without any trouble." The three men then dig a whole where a piece of string Jupiter dropped through the left eye socket and touched the ground. They then find an estimate of 1.5 million dollars with a mixture of rings, diamonds, and coins.

This entire story struck me with a connection to the supernatural; finding a dead bug that is the consistency of gold is something I do not believe to be possible but I could be wrong. It is the typical Poe to write from with an abstract perspective and this is one of his stories that I found interesting. The fact he repeats the skull's eyes are pecked out by crows something I could imagine one of the many Greek/Roman gods using as a bully tactic to a human who was the victor in a contest.
Finding this amount of gold and other various valuables is something that made me immediately think of Pirates. Pirates are mythological to me because of their ability to live for months at sea by taking advantage of others and impeding their future because they feel their goods are more valuable to them (pirates) than the original owners. Legrander had previously been wealthy but he continues to keep his eyes peeled in-case there is an opportunity to regain his status. The way he goes about finding the gold reminds me of the "take 50 steps facing West, 10 to the East, and 23 to North by Northwest" and the only way this could ever truly work for someone is if they had a connection to the gods. There must always be someone looking down on Legrander....