"The Man That Was Used Up": Edgar Allan Poe and the Ends of Captivity

Although long neglected by critics, Poe's story The Man That Was Used Up (1839) offers a parodic but considered critique of the American captivity narrative. The story focuses on the mysterious Brevet Brig Gen John A.B.C. Smith, a soldier who enjoys considerable notoriety among the members of polite society. Directing our attention to the aftermath of Smiths captivity, Poe satirizes the ways in which military heroes become vested with ideological value a practice that he had ample opportunity to observe in Jacksonian America. The outrageousness of the story invites us to deconstruct the captivity genre itself and its long-standing role in promoting military conict. This theme becomes particularly apparent in the storys nal revelation that the General is wholly made of prostheses, that his re-membered body is a living advertisement to the dominance of American technology. Poes interest in this theme is rooted in 1830s rhetoric justifying the removal of Indian populations in the South and West. The Generals status as a cyborg also makes him an important antecedent to the many robotic warriors that have surfaced in twentieth-century ction and lm. Poes cyborg differs from these gures in that he is less the ideal combatant than the ideal captive, a gure endowed with charm, handsome features, and hegemonic signicance. Poes story leads us to question whether the ultimate mission of redeemed captives is not so much to defeat an alien society as it is to conquer their own.