Moby Dick

The symbolic hierarchy that allows the Pequod to function as a successful whaling ship with three physically powerful non-white harpooners bolstering the administrative power of the three white mates, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask is a constant reminder of the racial diversity, stereotypes, and divides of the time. In this hierarchy all of the non-white characters are naturally subordinate to the whites and tend to function as caricatures of their cultures. In chapter 48, The First Lowering, Melville presents the reader with a unique scene that poses an interesting and ironic reminder of the racial hierarchy that embeds itself in every aspect of the novel’s progression. On page 214 Daggoo offers his body as a platform for Flask to more fully scan the ocean for whales,

“The sight of little flask mounted upon gigantic Daggoo was yet more curious; for sustaining himself with a cool, indifferent, easy, unthought of, barbaric majesty, the noble negro to every roll of the sea harmoniously rolled his fine form. On his broad back, flaxen-haired Flask seemed a snow-flake. The bearer looked nobler than the rider. Though truly vivacious, tumultuous, ostentatious little Flask would now and then stamp with impatience; but not one added heave did he thereby give to the negro’s lordly chest. So have I seen Passion and Vanity stamping the living magnanimous earth, but the earth did not alter her tines and her seasons for that.”

In this scene Flask standing on Daggoo’s shoulders becomes a physical reminder of the structure created by the three white mates and the three non-white harpooners on board the Pequod. In each case, the non-white man, whether Native American, Pacific Islander, or African, becomes merely a tool in the hands – or even under the feet – of the white man. However, it is interesting to point out that this passage applauds the physical wonders of Daggoo, noting him as superior to Flask as that ‘the bearer looked nobler than the rider’. Although Melville uses this passage to portray the power and superiority of white men of ‘inferior races’, he also uses it to display the unrelenting physical strength and important physical superiority of the non-white races. Additionally, this passage comments on the actual color contrast between the two races. The way in which Melville describes Flask’s Anglo appearance; ‘flaxen-haired Flask’, and in his reference to Flask as a ‘snow flake’ invokes a feeling of stark contrast between the ‘whiteness’ of Flask and the ‘blackness’ of Daggoo.

Melville’s portrayal of Daggoo’s unquestionable willingness to function as a physical tool just as a pedestal would serves as a blatant commentary on the voluntary submission of the non-white men to the white men both on board the Pequod and in 19^th century America. Melville is using the somewhat laughable scene of little Flask mounted on Daggoo’s shoulders to comment on the ridiculous nature of racial hierarchies that existed in 19^th century America.

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