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What’s Up With the Title?

But on you're thinking caps, because this one's gonna throw you for a loop: The title "MS. Found in a Bottle" tells us this story is a message found in a bottle.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't so confusing. And we were kidding about the loop. The truth of the matter is, this title's a basic one. Everything we read is supposedly contained in the message itself; there's nothing else to the story.

But if you think about it, the title's actually a fairly clever way to reveal the story's themes of exploration and adventure, since messages in bottles are often associated with shipwrecks and castaways on tropical islands. As with the introductory paragraphs, Poe skips past the deep meanings and gets right to the point. "This is a message. Found in a bottle. Let's all read what it says!"