Entry #3 (end)

The narrator tries to get Wyatt to tell him about the oblong box by," [saying] something about the 'peculiar shaped box' and as [he] spoke those words, [he] smiled knowingly, winked and touched [Wyatt] gently with my forefinger in the ribs." But Wyatt was furious with that remark and then burst out in awkward laughter, before dropping down to the ground motionless. After many peculiar nights, The boat started to take on water and sink. Everyone had to evacuate except the people who were lowering the life-boats. The Captain, his wife, Wyatt and his party, and the narrator were all on one life-boat, when Wyatt remembere his oblong box. He jumped back on the boat before it toched the water to get it. However, the whole life-boat watched while Wyatt attempted to get off the boat but plunged- along with the sinking vessel- into the depths of the writhing sea. A month later, the narrator saw the Captain again in New York and he explained the mystery about that oblong box. Before the ship set off, Wyatt went on board with his wife, but tragically the wife got sick and died. Since the ship would taking off soon, and he was going to her mother's Wyatt decided that she would want her daughter's corpse. They embalmed her with salt and put her in an oblong box. But, "there is a hysterical laugh which will forever ring within [his] ears."

Entry #2

The narrator believes that he is probably holding an expensive painting, because he knows an illegal art dealer that Wyatt knows. But when he finally gets to see the "extra luggage" (when they start boarding the ship) he is perplexed because it is a 6'x 2' oblong pine box that could only hold Da Vinci's "The Last Supper", but he is convinced that the art dealer probably made a copy. However the box did not go into the extra stateroom, it occupied the whole floor of Wyatt's own room. Lastly, on the lid of the box it stated, " Mrs. Adelaide Curtis, Albany, New York, Charge of Cornelius Wyatt, Esq. This side up. to be handled with care."

"The Oblong Box"- Edgar Allen Poe

12/2

Entry #1

Our narrator worked on a large boat called Independence. On the day before they were to set sail he was aboard the ship in his stateroom, making final arrangements. On the list of passengers he saw his old friend from college, Mr. Cornelius wyatt. He also sees he booked three staterooms, that could hold two people each, for just four people. The narrator pondered about this for a while, but he concluded that Wyatt must have had extra baggage that he wished to be kept safe with him, not to be put down in the hold.