Edgar Allan Poe's short story, 'The Gold Bug' is an interesting story and I try to give my review about it.

1. The Gold Bug:
A Critique
Kaushal Desai
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University
Department of English
kaushaldesai123@gmail.com

2. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Gold Bug
Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-49) - American poet,
short-story writer, and critic who is best known
for his tales of ratiocination, his fantastical horror
stories, and his genre-founding detective stories.
Poe, whose cloudy personal life is a virtual
legend, considered himself primarily a poet. Gold-
Bug (1843) - William Le Grand discovers a map
which leads to hidden treasure. “The Gold-Bug”
was an early detective story that helped to
establish the wider category of the mystery story.

4. Tales of Mystery and
Imagination

5. Death
Study
of his
Theme
Mystery
Relief Detective
Murder

8. Legrand
painting of
Bug

9. Some important phrases
The Gold Bug is not a real creature but combination of
two creatures.
Strange man Mr. Legrand who seemingly goes crazy after
being bitten by a bug thought to be made of pure gold.
He draws a picture of a Bug , narrator says that the image
looks like a skull.
Legrand feels insulted-inspects his own Drawing, locked it
into a drawer.

10. Narrator-
Legrand go on
expedition.
Jupiter visits the
narrator and
asks him to
return to
Sullivan’s
Island.
Along with The
Golden Bug tied
to a string deep
in the island's
wilderness.
They find a tree
in which
Legrand orders
Jupiter to climb
with the Golden
Bug in tow.

11. There he finds the
Skull and Legrand
tells him to drop
the bug through
one of the eye
sockets.

12. From where it
falls, they dig.

13. They find treasure
buried by the
infamous pirate-
Caption Kidd.
Narrator estimated
it’s worth-about
fourteen million
dollars.

14. Jupiter
Poe’s depiction
of the African
Servant Jupiter-considered
stereotypical and
racist from a
modern
perspective.
Jupiter is
depicted-superstitious,
lacking in
intelligence that
he can not tell
his Left from his
Right.

15. Conclusion
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug” is
often included amongst the short list of
detective stories by Poe, is not technically
detective fiction because Legrand withholds
the evidence until after the solution is given.
Nevertheless, the Legrand character is often
compared to Poe's fictional detective C. And
the discovers the phenomenon of The Gold
Bug

16. Movie: The Gold Bug

17. Discussion Questions
1. Comment: As in "The Premature Burial," the first half of "The Gold
Bug" creates what is
2. in hindsight an extremely misleading atmosphere.
3. What is Jupiter’s role in the story?
4. Were you surprised that Legrand found treasure? What was your
opinion of Legrand and
5. the narrator at the early part of the story?
6. How does Poe establish an atmosphere of fear and suspense in this
short story?
7. Poe often uses unreliable narrators in his stories. Discuss the
narrator and protagonist in
8. The Gold Bug.
9. Is this a detective story? Why or why not? If not, how could you
make it one?

18. Thank You
Kaushal Desai
kaushaldesai123@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/kaushaldesai01