Moby Dick

Melville courageously and yet tactfully utilizes the adventures of Ishmael to insert his own commentary regarding issues surrounding race in the 19^th century. He highlights common racial divides, scrutinizes widely accepted racial prejudices of the time, and proposes a renewed meaning of racial coexistence. However, Melville’s seemingly modern perception of race doesn’t fully escape the grasp of numerous race related social constructions.

Within the first 21 chapters of Moby Dick, Melville focuses his racial commentary around the budding friendship between Ishmael and his ‘peddler of heads’ bedfellow, Queequeg. A passage on page 48 from the chapter ‘A Bosom Friend’ in which Ishmael consciously commits to befriending Queequeg, highlights Ishmael’s ironic acceptance and to a certain extent curious appraisal of Queequeg as a racially dissimilar friend.

“Savage though he was, and hideously marred about the face—at least to my taste—his countenance yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart…”

This passage exemplifies the fact that Melville’s notion of racial serenity doesn’t come without burdensome obstacles. In this passage Ishmael recognizes Queequeg as something beyond the color of his skin. He is able to identify ‘traces of a simple honest heart’ among other commendable traits. However, Ishmael persistently uses prejudicial labels such as ‘savage’, ‘unearthly’, and ‘pagan’ that prevent him from leveling with Queequeg as a human being. It is in this way that Melville conveys a conflicted message in terms of promoting racial equality.

The most interesting component of this passage is the surprising comparison Ishmael makes between Queequeg and George Washington.

“…but certain it was his head was phrenologically an excellent one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington’s head, as seen in the popular busts of him. It had the same long regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows, which were likewise very projecting, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed.”

As a reader, the reference to George Washington came as a surprise to me. I didn’t expect Ishmael to be willing to liken a ‘savage’ such as Queequeg to a man of such great historical and symbolic importance. However, this comparison remains confined to a physical similarity and not one that functions to elevate Queequeg to George Washington’s level of fame or respect. Additionally, Melville allows Ishmael to revert to his prejudicial tendencies by using the term ‘cannibalistically developed’, whatever that means, to define Queequeg.

As the book progresses and Ishmael and Queequeg’s friendship blossoms it will be interesting to see if Ishmael will be influenced to shed his seemingly natural racial discriminations and fully embrace Queequeg as a companion at sea.

Works Cited

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.

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