Short story-THE MAN OF CROWD

This is a famous short story of Edgar Allan Poe (Jan 19, 1809-October 7,

1894).He was an inventor of detective fiction in America. The Man of the

Crowd is a mysterious story.Writer tells us that some books don’t permit

themselves to be read. Like-wise some people are also like secret books,

they don’t permit themselves to be read. In this story narrator follows a

fellow for almost 24 hours. He was a man of crowd and knows the art of

hiding himself from the people.

The narrator is sitting near the window of D…Coffee House. He recently

recovers from serious disease. Now he is enjoying himself. The narrator

observes the crowd, the crowd contains different sorts of people in it.

There are senior and junior clerks, beggars, teachers, lawyers, soldiers etc.

The narrator also notices porters, drunkards, young girls and well-painted

ladies there. Soon he sees an old man, some sixty five or seventy years of

age. It is a strange face which captures the attention of narrator. He

follows the old man. He observes terror, malice, despair and vast mental

power at his face. Now he wants to know more about him. He is a very

feeble and short man. Now it is night. Suddenly old man disappears in fog.

They narrator chases him into cross streets, squares and by –streets. The

old always feels comfortable in crowd whenever the crowd is thinner he

looks confused.

Narrator chases him throughout the city. Suddenly he changes the route

and enters into the suburb. It was “a world of poverty and crime…an

unhealthy world”. Then he comes to the bar. Then he again becomes a

man of crowd. At last, in the evening of second day the narrator surrenders

himself and left the chasing. He concludes that he was like a book that did

not permit itself to be read.

In crux, we can say that;

A man of crowd is a reflection of our own shadows. We chase

ourselves throughout the life.