Scholar Shawn Rosenheim believes that the use of hieroglyphs in the novel served as a precursor to Poe's interest in cryptography. The pictographs themselves were likely inspired by "The Kentuckies in New-York" (1834) by William Alexander Caruthers, where similar writing is the work of a black slave. Unlike the previous sea-voyage tales that Poe had written, such as "MS. Found in a Bottle", Pym is undertaking this trip on purpose. It has been suggested that the journey is about establishing a national American identity as well as discovering a personal identity.