Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Man That Was Used Up” is an astounding dramatic farce involving the search for truth of an unnamed narrator to discern the true secret of a distinguished war hero, General John A.B.C. Smith. Along the way, Poe illustrates a Civil War-era society that brims with a very specific type of cultural revisionism and American exceptionalism that belies the true ugliness of the nation’s atrocities underneath. Looking at this story in the context of the Jacksonian era, in which Indian removal was a very prevalent cultural practice and the upper class lionized military might borne of a sense of machismo and masculinity, Poe manages to show the cracks in the façade and reveal the problematic nature of America’s race politics in the 19th century. In many ways, Poe’s “Man That Was Used Up” is a trenchant satire of the basic military machismo and technological overconfidence of American society, as well as the problematic nature of anti-black and anti-native racism indicative of the times.
Slavery, Militarization and Market Forces in the Jacksonian Era
In order to best understand the political atmosphere of “The Man That Was Used Up,” it is important to learn what one can about the Jacksonian South and pre-Civil War America. Racism and white supremacy were central tenets of the Jacksonian Era, with a great deal of discrimination and prejudice occurring during this time. In many ways, the market revolution brought about the aforementioned changes in consideration of races: while in previous times, lesser races would simply be exterminated, this new line of thinking allowed whites to feel secure in their own supremacy and instead utilize minorities to do work for them (Ford Jr. 718). Just as the world was expanding and new technologies were cropping up, so too did the Jacksonian-era white majority need workers to keep up with this demand for higher rates of production in order to continue the state-building of America in the 19th century.
In the 1840s and 1850s (the time in which this story was written), America maintained an active and booming slave industry, and worked hard toward western expansion of the United States at the expense of Native American lands and populations. The major obstacles to American empire-building in this era were the many Indian peoples who populated these lands, leading to all manner of justifications being used to eliminate these obstacles and further the nation’s sense of power (Shepherd 721). While the Indians themselves provided a decent sense of military might, the Comanches having controlled the borderlands of Texas and Mexico for generations by this point, they were still ultimately helpless against the combined numbers and technology of the American military forces (Shepherd 722). To that end, the Indian removal of the 1800s was no less than a systemic massacre of Indian peoples to further the expanding reach of America’s cultural and global influence over the North American continent.
While this is nothing new in the era of colonialism, the specifically American idea of “manifest destiny” made this particularly integral to the overt subjugation of blacks and Native Americans through white cultural hegemony and superior technology (Ford Jr. 714). The Jacksonian era saw a sea change in race relations, particularly uplifting the ‘white man’s burden’ at the expense of both black slaves and the Native Americans:
“This new Jacksonian racial modernity denied the viability of a biracial republic, doubted the efficacy of efforts to promote respectability and social uplift among people of color, and conceded only a measure of white responsibility for the well-being of an allegedly ‘inferior’ race” (Ford Jr. 715-716).
Reflecting the Racism of America in “The Man That Was Used Up”
In “The Man That Was Used Up,” these racist, imperialist perspectives are pervasive among the characters the narrator meets, including the narrator himself. The entirety of the story takes place among the American upper crust, a society seemingly obsessed with appearances and enjoying the creature comforts that come from living in such a civilized age. This is most evident in the character of General John A.B.C. Smith, a man whose incredible military achievements and dashing figure make him the talk of the town, and the subject of the narrator’s inquiry.
Even at the beginning of the story, the narrator is drawn to Smith’s beauty, describing him as a “truly fine-looking fellowof a presence singularly commanding” (Poe). Two of the first paragraphs of the story are spent ogling Smith himself, marveling over the man’s incredible countenance, his teeth, the symmetry of his face and shoulders, and the beauty of his legs (Poe). The narrator notes him as a figure of exquisite aesthetic loveliness: “I wish to God my young and talented friend Chiponchipino, the sculptor, had but seen the legs of Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith” (Poe).
This opening segment quickly establishes the bright, gleaming façade of the American military man, as military might and gentlemanly warfare were values that were highly prized in the American consciousness at the time (Mead 281). His external appearance even affects how his personality is perceived; the narrator acknowledges that his character is a bit rigid in movement and countenance, but that is more excusable in a man of such masculine beauty and command of his body than it would be in “a more diminutive figure” (Poe). This detailed description is an integral component of the story, as the rest of the tale sees Poe attempting to deconstruct this Platonic ideal of the American man.
The narrator’s attempt to learn more about this intriguing man (as the narrator admits, “the slightest appearance of mystery- of any point I cannot exactly comprehend- puts me at once into a pitiable state of agitation”) is the vehicle for Poe’s own critique of Jacksonian-era American culture and its myopic views on heroism and social status. This most notably occurs when the narrator attempts to traverse the room and talk to the rest of the upper-crust attendees about Smith himself, to which they seemingly have created a collective set of lies to tell each other in order to maintain Smith’s heroism. Everyone’s speeches seem lifted from a mutually agreed-upon script: everyone calls Smith “a perfect desperado,” “a downright fire-eater, and no mistake,” “blood and thunder,” “prodigies of valor” and more (Poe).
As the narrator asks each new person, they become more and more apprehensive about the things they are saying, culminating in Theodore Sinivate (whom the narrator believes he “should get something like definite information”) simply stammering out the same script as everyone else (Poe). This creates an air of mystery around the character, but not for the right reason – the narrator, and the reader, note that something is innately uncanny and wrong about General John A.B.C. Smith, thus playing into Poe’s satirical critique of this lofty ideal of American white hegemony and military masculinity. While Smith himself is meant to be the hero of American cultural supremacy, Poe can clearly tell that something is wrong with this picture, and seeks to uncover it for the reader.
The reveal at the end of the story allows Poe’s satire to come full circle, as the narrator decides that he “would call forthwith upon the General himself, and demand, in explicit terms, a solution of this abominable piece of mystery” (Poe). Reaching Smith’s home, he discovers to his horror that General Smith’s many appealing attributes are all fake – pieces of him cut off in the devastation of war. His legs are prosthetic, he wears an artificial palate to give himself gleaming teeth and tongue in which to speak, a false eye and more. Instead, he lives in distressing solitude with a disgruntled servant to place these apparatuses on him to make him seem human (Poe). While Smith was once fully human and ‘whole,’ it is clear in the story that the many conflicts he fought has left him barely a man anymore, the prostheses used as a smokescreen to prop him up for the sake of furthering the American cultural agenda.
In many ways, this reveal humanizes Smith and also offers righteous karmic justice – while Smith himself becomes a pitiable character, he admits to the narrator that “one mustn't fight with the Bugaboos and Kickapoos, and think of coming off with a mere scratch” (Poe). Smith, in his misery, must deal both with the guilt of what he has done in the name of masculinity and a sense of Western American expansion, and the monster the pursuit of glorious battle has turned him into. As the narrator (and the tile notes), “Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith was the man- the man that was used up” (Poe). In this context, Smith is very clearly ‘used up’ by the cultural values he sacrificed himself to embody – that of military prowess, stoic manhood, and the perceived superiority of the white race in conquering the United States.
The Objects of Satire in “Used Up”
In “The Man Who Was Used Up,” Poe approaches this story with a very dark sense of humor, and with a clear mind to critique the myopia of upper-class American aristocratic life. The high-society characters in the story are given ridiculous names like “the Reverend Doctor Drummummupp” (drum ‘em up), Tabitha T, the Bas-Bleus, and more, and their short-sighted, vapid speech quickly draws the ire of the narrator: “I made my retreat from the house in a very bitter spirit of animosity against the whole race of the Bas-Bleus” (Poe). To that end, Poe seeks to criticize both General Smith for his foolishness in chasing such a silly, unattainable lie and the aristocratic American citizens who buy into it in order to justify their sense of security and superiority.
According to scholars, Poe’s character of General John A.B.C. Smith was heavily based on General Winfield Scott, who was a long-serving veteran of the American military and a central component in the removal campaigns of the Seminole and Creek Indian tribes, as well as the Black Hawk War (Mead 283). These attributes and more make him closely linked to the story’s Jacksonian backdrop, acting as an agent of the very forces that committed atrocities in the name of manifest destiny. Smith himself is constantly cited as “the hero of the Bugaboo and Kickapoo campaign,” ostensibly linked to the real Scott’s Indian-massacring escapades.
Among many underlying themes in the story, “The Man That Was Used Up” becomes a treatise on the perceived advancement of civilization in Jackson-era America, and the sacrifices that were made along those lines. One constant refrain among all the other characters is that “we are a wonderful people, and live in a wonderful age” of technological advancement and culture (Poe). Much of this advancement came in the form of military technology, with muskets and cannons allowing the American military to easily crush Indian populations in order to take over their land (Watson 223). This adds a needed sense of menace to Smith’s line, “There is really no end to the march of invention” – the constant growth and advancement of white American culture must, by necessity, come at the expense of another’s (Poe).
The Jacksonian era itself was immensely supporting of the military, military prowess and technology improving as a result of the greater accountability it had toward maintaining American social norms and national needs (Watson 219). While early America saw an “opposition to standing armies and an officer corps of privileged placemen,” Jackson’s America saw a growing acceptance of the standing army as a source of national pride, and an ability to allow America to flex its collective military muscles as the country grew larger and required more breathing room (Watson 219).
There is a decided sense of cultural elitism that takes place within the story – the narrator and other characters are fond of using French and Latin phrases to advance their own sense of intelligence (“the odd air of je ne sais quoi,” “respecting the tremendous events quorum pars magna fuit”) (Poe). However, their treatment of Native Americans and blacks are tremendously barbaric and elitist, hammering home the aforementioned sense of white superiority prevalent in the Jacksonian era. Tabitha T, for example, is representative of the flighty, ignorant upper class who ignore the racial plight of the Indians in favor of protecting the interests of her fellow whites: “a bloody set of wretches, those Kickapoos!” (Poe). Everyone speaks to the Bugaboo and Kickapoo campaigns, fictional accounts that nonetheless heavily imply white massacres of Native American tribes that are commensurate with the Jackson-era attacks against natives (Mead 281).
Of particular importance and detail to the subject of race is the treatment of Smith’s servant, Pompey, by Smith at the end of the story. The black servant is the only nonwhite character in the tale, and is described by both the narrator and Smith by many racial pejoratives, including “negro,” “nigger” and the like (Poe). Given Smith’s diminished status as revealed at the end of the story, his cruel and bossy treatment of Pompey is doubly disconcerting and ironic – Smith believing he has the upper hand over Pompey simply because of his race. This is, of course, in spite of the fact that Pompey is responsible for essentially building Smith up to the level of distinguished beauty that causes everyone around him to value him.
In many ways, Pompey’s maintenance of his pathetic master becomes metaphorical for the use of slave labor to ‘build up’ the white man – Smith circumventing the cost of his racist arrogance by getting another race to serve him, much like the use of stolen Indian lands in the South as slave-holding plantations (Mead 285). Here, Poe shows the endless cycle of subjugation of minorities by a white cultural and military hegemony, moving from one race to another as they see fit due to their perceived God-given right to rule over all nonwhites. Here, Poe demonstrates the inherent silliness of that concept and its own objectionable nature, as the characters refuse to acknowledge the hypocrisy and emptiness of the vapid exercises they conduct in the name of reputation.
American Masculinity and Imperialism
A very important element of that cultural arrogance, and of Smith’s character, is the concepts of masculinity that Smith works so hard to maintain, and which Poe shows to be incredibly thin and false. Poe’s story explores the illusion of heroism, showing that Indian removal allowed white men to flaunt their masculinity, as they used their ability to kill ‘lesser’ races of man to showcase how superior they (and white culture in general) were. In many ways, Smith feels the onus put upon him to maintain the sense of American nation-building that Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren placed on the military and the people alike through their assertion of manifest destiny (Mead 286). Though his pain is real, he cannot show it, for it would betray the idea that America’s current direction is not one it should be heading in.
Extending the symbolism of Smith himself towards the United States as a whole, Smith becomes indicative of a country which itself mistakenly pretends to be whole. Just as his black servant has to piece him together out of a series of artificial pieces, so too does America build itself up on the backs of minorities in order to maintain the illusion that it does not need any help. These images heavily condemn the ideals of masculinity, citizenship and superiority that were at play in Jacksonian-era America, criticizing those who pretend to be able to further the cause of the white race on their own when the truth is much more pathetic.
Conclusion
“The Man That Was Used Up” allows Edgar Allan Poe to shine a harsh light on the many injustices and foibles of Jacksonian-era America, particularly the seizing of native lands and the wholesale killing of Indians (as well as the cultural justifications built up by the upper-class to excuse these violent takeovers). General John A.B.C. Smith becomes an avatar for the thin veneer of respectability American culture gave these actions during this time, as his military actions leave him scarred and crippled – “used up” – but still having the need to keep up appearances to assure others that manifest destiny brings nothing but happiness. The empty, vapid upper class that surrounds him buy into this illusion, even when they are just repeating from a script, showing America as a place that must insist that they are doing the right thing, even when that thing is genocide.
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