The Terror

Meat consumption is a central motif that is directly tied to the novel’s depiction of horror. Without meat, the men cannot survive, only for them in the end to become meat themselves—whether to the Tuunbaq, or each other in the case of Hickey’s mutineers. In the beginning, the men consume the meat harvested, processed, and packed in England, which was then shipped thousands of miles to preserve the illusion of abundance even at the edge of the world. The officers’ dinners, with their roasts and carefully served cuts, represent the cultural confidence that English civilization can extend anywhere, even into the Arctic. However, these provisions are tainted. Historically and in Simmons’s retelling, much of the canned meat supplied to the Franklin Expedition is contaminated, poorly sealed, or spoiled. The men suffer from scurvy, food poisoning, and the creeping horror of food that looks intact but carries hidden rot. The empire’s attempt to master the Arctic through logistics collapses when its rations turn against the men. What was meant to preserve life accelerates decay.

While Irving at first suspects the fresh meat he finds Silence eating in the cable locker is from the bodies of the men previously killed by the Tuunbaq, it’s revealed that it’s from the animals the Tuunbaq is bringing her.