Moby Dick

As I was reading the beginning parts of Moby Dick, one of the things that occurred to me was the utter reliance that these sailing towns seem to have on the sea. These ports and islands rely on the ocean for their economy, food, light and most everything else they need. This then slips into everything that they do. While in New Bedford we can see this through the decorations at the inn and even the sermon given at the church. Most of the people who visit this church are also effected by the sea. They are all sailors or family members of sailors. As much as we see this connection to the sea in New Bedford, I believe that the chapter that describes Nantucket is the best example of how Melville sets up a relationship between Whaling towns and their reliance on the environment that the ocean presents them with.

The first thing that we learn about Nantucket is that it is completely covered in sand. This poses a problem for people who live here in terms of making a living. If you live in a place where grass and trees are so scarce that people “plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time,” you can not expect to farm as a way of life. According to the Native American tale that Ishmeal tells us, the people who first lived on this island began by digging for clams and then soon started fishing. They worked their way up until they finally began hunting whales.

This kind of adaptation to your surroundings is something that gets talked about a lot in American history. The way that people from another country adapted to the new conditions around them is one way of studying regional differences within the United States. This can be seen especially in the ways that we study the West and the adaption of living in an arid climate. This adaptation and rugged determination to live in places that may not be easy to live has been pointed at as a source of the “American character” in the West. Some say that this kind of adaption however could be going too far in some cases. In the West we can see problems arising now in water supplies. As we now know in the case of whaling, people had created an industry that was eventually extremely distructive to the living environment in the ocean. By creating a way for the human population to live, there was an Environmental cost.

I am curious to see as the book goes on how Melville adresses this problem. You can clearly see that he is aware that this connection to the environment exists very strongly between sailing towns and the sea. However, I do not think that I have see a strong opinion emerge just yet.

In only the first 15 chapters of Moby Dick, Melville makes multiple biblical references. The most lengthy is the story of Jonah. Ishmael stumbles into a church and sits through a very lengthy sermon, all about Jonah’s flee from God. Since this passage is so long, I questioned its significance immediately: obviously the story involved a whale but Jonah’s story is important for another reason. Jonah, before getting swallowed by a whale, is running from something. He runs from God because he refuses to carry out God’s will. To escape this responsibility, Jonah leaves land on a ship that will hopefully “carry him into countries where God does not reign” (Melville 37). Almost immediately I connected this attitude of escaping, or running away, with Ishmael’s own description of himself in the beginning of the book.

Just as Jonah is running to sea to escape his religious expectations, Ishmael runs to sea to escape the alienation he often feels on land. Ishmael calls this alienation “a damp, drizzly November in [his] soul” (1). When he falls into spells of boredom and “nothing particular interests [him] on shore” (1), Ishmael takes off. The tendency to run away also parallels the history of Ishmael’s name in the Bible.

Ishmael is the name of Abraham’s first born son, who was born of Hagar, a servant, rather than Sarah, Abraham’s wife. In jealousy, Sarah exiles Ishmael and Hagar. Even though Ishmael is banished, he is still destined to do great things. Granted, Ishmael, in this story, is not running from something. But he is leaving his familiar world and about to embark upon a very enlightening journey, just like Jonah and Ishmael (in Moby Dick).

After assessing the significance of Ishmael’s name and the story of Jonah, I have decided that going to sea replaces religion on Ishmael’s life. When feeling down and without a purpose, a common remedy is faith. When seeking enlightenment, religion is a common path. Ishmael goes to sea for these exact reasons. The reader can tell Ishmael isn’t very satisfied by his religious faith in the way he speaks of the church. He negatively portrays the worshipers as “islands of men and women” that are “purposely sitting apart from the other” and “steadfastly eyeing marble tablets” (30). All of these descriptions make the churchgoers seem empty and emotionless, furthermore separating them from our narrator.

Assuming sailing (and soon whaling) serve as Ishmael’s religious replacement, I expect that the voyage will provide him with very enlightening and adventurous events. In a way, the churchgoing event could serve as a method of foreshadowing, since the sermon is all about Jonah and his flee from land. It helps the reader predict that Ishmael will find something bigger than himself while at sea.

One occurrence of Melville’s literary allusions in Moby-Dick can be seen in his penchant for naming his characters after individuals from the Bible (Captain Ahab and the stranger Elijah).  These two examples reflect the embodiment of Melville’s individuals with the Scriptural significance of their stories.  Captain Ahab is named after the wicked, malicious king of Israel, who the Bible refers to as the “most evil of all kings that came before him” (1 Kings 16:30).  Named after such a reputation, this vindictive personality seems to loom over Captain Ahab, even before the reader is introduced to him.  Elijah, the curious stranger Queequeg and Ishmael encounter before leaving port, refers to the Biblical prophet of the same name (Melville even classifies him as such).  In Scripture, Elijah is first introduced through his warnings to King Ahab of the terrible misfortune that will come as a result of his evil doings. In Moby-Dick, Elijah serves a similar purpose by warning the two whale-men of the enigmatic sufferer who will be their captain, and the trying expedition ahead of them: “Shan’t see you again very soon, I guess; unless it’s before the Grand Jury.” (Melville, 95).  In this way, Elijah encapsulates the Biblical reference of his name.  He stirs in Ishmael a sense of apprehension and curiosity concerning his future captain and impending journey.

While these two characters are more clearly linked to the qualities their namesakes possessed, Ishmael presents a more interesting study.  The name Ishmael calls to mind the story in Genesis of Abraham’s slave-born son, Ishmael.  In Scripture, Ishmael is seen in opposition to the spirit of God.  The illegitimate son of slavery, there is no place reserved for him in the Family Covenant of God.  He is cast out from society, ostracized and shunned by mankind and God himself.   However, Ishmael, as the protagonist of Moby-Dick, chooses to purposefully separate and remove himself from the general body of society and the traditions of conventional Christianity by traveling to sea.  Ishmael writes, “I am tormented by an everlasting itch for things remote.  I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.” (Melville, 6)  His questioning of the mainstream hypocrisy of Christianity can be seen through his friendship with Queequeg, a savage pagan, whom he develops a close relationship with and respect for his hybrid form of spirituality and religion.  Although he questions the morality of those who call themselves Christians (such as Captain Bildad), Ishmael does not abandon the religious virtues he was taught; those of compassion to others, ethics and a sense of righteousness.  Further reading of Moby-Dick will reveal the full extent and ways in which our narrator embodies the layered references of his name.  Perhaps by choosing this name, Melville hints at the unstable role Ishmael may hold in this small society on the ship.  As Ishmael questions the veracity of those proclaimed Christian, he may also question the authority of Captain Ahab and jeopardize his place in the journey.

(Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Signet Classic: NY, 1998.)

The first line of Moby Dick draws the reader close into the mind of the narrator, with his command, “call me Ishmael,” (Melville,  For the first 21 chapters, and presumably the whole text, we see the word through the eyes of the enigmatic Ishmael.  We know his thoughts, feelings, and deepest opinions.  However, he himself is invisible.  We see what he sees, but have no way to look at him as a character.  Melville forces us to piece together the central figure of the book through his feelings, opinions, and subtle allusions to his past.

In the first chapter, Ishmael explains why he goes to sea, and why he will never go as a passenger; he has no money and he enjoys the freedom of the forecastle deck.  He acknowledges that, as a common sailor,

they rather order me about some…and at first, this sort of thing is unpleasant enough.  It touches one’s sense of honor, particularly if you come of an old established family in the land, the Van Rensselars, or Randolphs, or Hardicanutes.  And more than all, if just previous to putting your hand into the tarpot, you have been lording it as a country schoolmaster…the transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a schoolmaster to a sailor. (Melville, 4)

Ishmael speaks in the third person, but he clearly speaks of himself .  We have a glimpse of his past as a blue-blooded, well educated, and powerful individual.  This, of course, makes the reader wonder what happened to turn Ishmael from the son of some wealthy house to a penniless sailor.  The answer seems to lie in Melville’s own life.  Melville was born to an important New York Dutch family, well-educated, and spent several years teaching school before signing on as a deck hand to sail to Liverpool.  Ishmael is clearly modelled on his creator, Herman Melville.  The author seems to be purposefully obscuring the face of Ishmael so that we might not notice it is actually him.

There may be an additional reason for Ishmael’s obscurity.  It allows the reader to put a bit of himself into the character.  Perhaps this is one of the reason this book rings so true for so many.  Through Ishmael, the reader can get into this world, know the characters, and experience the same adventures and change of hearts as the elusive narrator.  We cannot hold a mirror up to him to see what he looks like, allowing us to use him as a window instead.

(New York: Signet Classic, 1998)

…at the present day not one in two of the many thousand men before the mast employed in the American whale fishery, are Americans born, though pretty nearly all the officers are. Herein it is the same with the American whale fishery as with the American army and military and merchant navies, and the engineering forces employed in the construction of the American Canals and Railroads. The same, I say, because in all these cases the native American liberally provides the brains, the rest of the world as generously supplying the muscles (130).

This excerpt clearly relates to the idea of American slavery, as Melville presents the idea of the well-oiled American machine as one operated by “native” Americans (a term that did not refer to Melville’s conception of the “Indian”) and fueled by the physically stronger outsiders. Towards the end of the passage, he almost directly refers to slavery in his mention of “the engineering forces employed in the construction of American Canals and Railroads,” many of whom were, in one sense of the word, not employed at all.
I instantly picked this passage out as a case of Melville using sarcasm to get across his anti-slavery message. Though he presents (what I assume to be) a truth about many American industries, he follows it up with a tongue-in-cheek explanation, relying on qualifiers such as “liberally” and “generously” to describe collective human behavior. He presents the idea as if civilized, American born white men all have such excessive stores of brainpower to spread over the workings of the savage brutes of foreign lands, as if the Americans are doing everyone else a big favor by bestowing their vast knowledge upon the others. Melville mocks the imperialist attitude that states, The men of our country know best. Then, in using “generously” to describe the “supplying” of the non-Americans’ brawn, Melville pokes fun at the idea that those forced to work for the white men do it out of their own beneficent spirits. The whole sentence creates this artificial atmosphere of the master and the worker combining all of their efforts for the benefit of the other. It’s as if a master says of his slave, “So-and-so was kind enough to pick all this cotton for me on the plantation today, weren’t you, So-and-so,” as the slave stands by with a big grin and a thumbs up. “Only because you told me where to pick, Master.”
Perhaps, though, I am wrong. Maybe Melville is being heartfelt in this passage, as a mere product of his times. In fact, the picture that Melville depicts seems to be that of the Pequod, where the brutish and foreign harpooners seem to get on quite will with the ship’s American born crew.

And since this famous fishery, each mate or headsman, like a Gothic Knight of old, is always accompanied by his boat-steerer or harpooner, who in certain conjunctures provides him with a fresh lance, when the former one has been badly twisted, or elbowed in the assault; and moreover, as there generally subsists between the two, a close intimacy and friendliness… (129)

While lacking a conventional plot structure, Moby Dick’s magnetism is Ishmael’s psychological process and his labor of storytelling, which reveal a complex and thoughtful protagonist. The most significant relationship formed during the initial 21 chapters (with apologies to Queequeg) is Ishmael’s new intrigue with whaling. As he has not been whaling yet, most of whaling’s ‘presence’ in the novel so far is the theoretical or the symbolic. What we do learn from Ishmael are the beliefs, ideas, and ideals that form the inner workings of his mind. Ishmael is satisfied in being ‘a working man,’ his self-effacing comments conveying an appreciation of hard labor and the desire to “abandon the glory and distinction of such offices to those who like them” (3). Ishmael lives simply, and his preferred lack of superfluous funds and possessions instills in him a way of directly correlating labor with the earnings it provides.

And though the 275th lay was what they call a rather long lay, yet it was better than nothing; and if we had a lucky voyage, might pretty nearly pay for the clothing I would wear out on it, not to speak of my three years’ beef and board, for which I would not have to pay one stiver.  (76).

He further ruminates on the way he understands money and the act of being paid, saying, “being paid, – what will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills” (4). Ishmael understands that hierarchy is a necessary institution, especially on a ship, where quick and singular decisions must be made be some experienced force in order to keep order. He asks rhetorically “Who ain’t a slave?” (4) but only in so much as to acknowledge the implicit order of things and to demonstrate that he understands the system, but is willing to work within it, and seems to derive pleasure out of it. His manner, confident but free of pretension, allows him to present himself to Captains Peleg and Bildad as a capable and willing worker. It is this sentiment about his own abilities that later makes him ‘horrified’ when he is presented with his ‘first kick’ by Captain Peleg for not working hard or fast enough as the Pequod disembarks from port. Ishmael respects Bildad’s reputation for being able to make men work hard without taking on the character of a screaming taskmaster, while simultaneously conveying that he too feels small in Bildad’s presence. Ishmael relates little of his past in the first chapters of his narrative, speaking instead simply in the moment; this is the way he also lives, moment to moment, deciding to go to sea when it suits him, confident in his own abilities. He is impressed by those, like Queequeg, who excel at their work and distrustful of those, like Elijah, who stray too far from normalcy and order. However, Elijah and the mysterious, so far unseen Captain Ahab are also sources of intrigue to him, representing those who have strayed or dropped out of the social order.    Ishmael’s self-status as a laborer works twofold- he equates hard work with monetary gain, recognizing the power of good, honest work. At the same time, his role as a simple seaman affords him the opportunity to witness what is going on around him, which gives him the information and structure for his other labor- the narrative.

Melville, who was not a scientist, frequently utilizes scientific justifications and explanations in the first few chapters.  Reading this today, it’s interesting to see what was considered acceptable or at least normal culturally in terms of scientific thought.  For instance, during one of Ishmael’s Queequeg observation sessions, he comments that Queequeg’s “head was phrenologically an excellent one.” (44) Ishmael then compares busts of George Washington to Queequeg, which adds to his preexisting positive impression since Washington evokes images of new hope, national glory, and victory!  Of course we know today that Phrenology is a form of scientific racism with no grounding whatsoever, but it’s interesting to hear Ishmael, who probably doesn’t know much about science or pseudoscience, mention this.

The type of thought process Ishmael uses here to describe Queequeg depicts the protagonist as someone with great judgment who will seek the silver lining even if it takes some effort.  Although Ishmael spends plenty of time discussing the more “barbaric” features of Queequeg as well, he does so in a tone that emphasizes hope and positivity:

“Through all his unearthly tattooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils.  And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim.  He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had a creditor.  Whether it was, too, that his head being shaved, his forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than it otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide; 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… Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed.” (44)

Ishmael describes Queequeg in a whimsically philosophical tone here with metaphors that, based on prior and later descriptions of the amazing Queequeg, all seem completely reasonable and consistent with his character and intentions.

Melville, Herman.  Moby Dick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008.

“I’ll try a pagan friend,” Ishmael says matter-of-factly on page 49 of Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. Melville presents Ishmael as an example for his readers in the subject of race. At times Ishmael acts as a race-relations role model, and at others he represents the audience’s faulty ideas about race.

As soon as Ishmael hears that the harpooneer with whom he is to share a bed is dark-complexioned, he becomes suspicious. However, he does not immediately think about race differences, and continues to worry mainly about his bedfellow’s unattractive harpooneer qualities.

When Ishmael lays eyes on Queequeg for the first time, he sees that the dark complexion is not solely a tan, and that Queequeg is in fact of a different race. This realization changes everything and Ishmael becomes frightened. Instead of thinking of his new companion as a “head-peddling harpooneer” (19), Ishmael calls Queequeg a “purple rascal” and an “abominable savage” and concludes that “had not the stranger stood between [him] and the door, [he] would have bolted out of it” (21).

Melville slips in a lesson to his readers at this point. In explaining his terror, Ishmael states: “Ignorance is the parent of fear” (21). Ishmael reflects the audience in that his lack of knowledge about Queequeg causes his fear. Melville’s readers should take away from this passage that they have nothing to fear of other races and should simply learn about them. They will learn that they are not so different.

With one polite act, Queequeg wins Ishmael’s affection. Ishmael concludes that “cannibals,” or “savages” are not so bad after all. Ishmael’s appreciation for Queequeg is a huge step in the right direction, but at the same time opens up a new can of worms.

In describing Queequeg, Ishmael generalizes people like him. He says things like “these savages have an innate sense of delicacy” (27). Ishmael does not think of them as individuals, but decides that since Queequeg can be polite, his whole tribe, or even the entire race, must also be polite. Most likely Queequeg’s race has both polite and rude individuals, just like white people. Ishmael does not think of them as “just like white people,” however, so allows himself to make generalizations.

In the quote with which I opened this post, the line from page 49, Ishmael makes yet another generalization. He has befriended a pagan, a savage, a man who is a different race. Ishmael feels pretty good about himself for that. What a good Christian man he is for befriending a pagan! While Ishmael is in fact ahead of his time, and it was a good thing for him to get along with Queequeg despite their differences, Ishmael is again not thinking of Queequeg as an individual. In that statement, he counts Queequeg as just some pagan he can befriend to feel good about himself.

Ishmael, like Melville’s readers, is imperfect. On page 31 he still judges people by their color. He explains that “in New Bedford, actual cannibals stand chatting at street corners, savages outright.” Ishmael sees them simply standing and chatting, so how can he make a judgment on them, except by the color of their skin? Ishmael has made progress for his time and environment, but there is still work to be done.

Melville uses Ishmael to teach his readers about true acceptance. Ishmael demonstrates that overcoming society’s racial separations is a difficult feat. He has taken the first step in conquering prejudices by accepting Queequeg, but he undoubtedly has more attitude changes to make. Melville presses upon his readers that superficial changes are not enough. They can befriend people of different races, and claim to unprejudiced all they want, but it may not necessarily be so. Melville calls for deeper change, and maybe one day we can all be friends.

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

The characters presented in the early chapters of Moby Dick are studies in contrast, with religion (and its attendant hypocrisy) sparring with realism or work. This framework allows Melville to unambiguously state his own positionality vis-à-vis the main narrator Ishmael. Ishmael is portrayed as the tolerant pragmatist, quietly decrying insidious forms of discrimination in New Bedford. Upon first seeing Queequeg enter his room at The Spouter-Inn, Ishmael remarks, ‘And what is it, thought I, after all! It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin…’ (Melville 20) As their relationship matures, Ishmael finds Queequeg’s ‘paganism’ a more honest and noble mode of existence, in contradistinction to the ‘civilized hypocrisies’ and ‘bland deceits’ of the harsh Puritanism of New England.

If Christian kindness has proven itself hollow (Melville 49), the Pequod’s Captain Bildad becomes the representative of a certain form of piousness that cannot reconcile itself with the practicalities of everyday life, leading to Ishmael’s rebuke of Christianity. For Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad’s worst offense was his inaction during a particularly perilous journey to Japan with Captain Ahab.  After presenting Queequeg with a tract titled “The Latter Day Coming; or No Time to Lose,” Bildad implores Peleg if he never considered God’s judgment in the moment of crisis in Japan. In a furious response, Peleg admonishes Bildad’s piousness;

“Hear him, hear him now,” cried Peleg, marching across the cabin, and thrusting his hands far down into his pockets,-“hear him all of ye. Think of that! When every moment we thought the ship would sink! Death and the Judgment then? No! No time to think about Death then! Life was what Captain Ahab and I was thinking of; and how to save all hands- how to rig jury-masts- how to get into the nearest port; that was what I was thinking of.” (Melville 88).

In conclusion, the foundational dichotomy between intolerant religious views and work (where one’s worth can only be gleaned through action, or the showing of practical skill in public view) frames this part of the story and informs Melville’s characterization. One can assume that this theme will be made even more manifest once the Pequod sets sail

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

As Professor Friedman has said, Melville makes numerous references to literature, philosophy, and Greek/Roman mythology and history in Moby Dick.

In the first paragraph of the novel, Melville alludes to the Roman politician known as Cato the Younger. Cato lived from 95 BC to 46 BC and was a statesmen during the late Roman Republic. He is remembered for his stubbornness and being in staunch opposition to Gaius Julius Caesar and the triumvirate. I may be simplifying this quite a bit, but I believe that a Civil War broke out between supporters of Caesar and a faction of the Senate who opposed Caesar; the latter group included Cato. After Caesar’s troops defeated the rebellion army in the Battle of Thaspus, Cato committed suicide by stabbing himself (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Younger)

In Moby Dick, Ishmael compares his need to go to sea to Cato’s suicide: Melville writes:

Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world… This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship (3).

I know we talked briefly in class about how “pistol and ball” could mean that sailing is Ishmael’s substitute for either killing himself or going on a murderous rampage; however, I believe this reference to Cato’s suicide indicates that Ishmael is referring to the former. It would also be difficult for Ishmael to kill others with a just a single ball which also implies suicide.

Melville could be making this reference to Cato for a couple of reasons. He could be trying to foreshadow that Ishmael is a rebellious character who might stand up to Captain Ahab (the nautical Caesar). He could also be trying to illustrate that Ishmael’s character is somewhat pretentious since he is comparing himself to Roman figure who had the courage to oppose Caesar. Finally, Melville could simply be making a reference to Cato because he wants to show the readers that he is familiar with the history and is therefore an educated and learned individual.