{"id":1387,"date":"2010-03-05T14:04:38","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T18:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/engl177\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2010-03-05T14:05:27","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T18:05:27","slug":"the-spout-and-the-tail-of-the-whale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/?p=1387","title":{"rendered":"The Spout and the Tail of the Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Around two thirds of the way through Herman Melville\u2019s <em>Moby Dick<\/em>, there are two consecutive chapters dedicated to describing physical attributes of the sperm whale. The first of these, Chapter 85, is entitled \u201cThe Fountain\u201d and depicts the spouting of the whale. The eighty-sixth chapter is entitled \u201cThe Tail\u201d and discusses this part of the whale.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0At the beginning of \u201cThe Fountain,\u201d a moment of the religion versus science debate that has undercurrents throughout the novel arises. Ishmael states that whales have been \u201cspouting all over the sea\u201d for \u201csix thousand years\u201d (Melville, 357). This follows the creationist theory, as the bible presents the idea that god created life six thousand years ago. However, immediately following this statement, Ishmael adds \u201c\u2014and no one knows how many millions of ages before\u201d (Melville, 357). This interjected addendum expresses doubt towards creationism, lightly supporting evolution.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Melville\u2019s depiction of the whales\u2019 spouts adds to the sense of mystery about the whale. He describes them with the metaphor \u201csprinkling or mystifying pots\u201d (Melville, 358). Melville also uses the discussion of the whale\u2019s spout to create an emotional response in the readers to the whale through stating that they have \u201cregular lungs, like a human beings\u201d (Melville, 358). \u00a0Ishmael describes the internal anatomical evolutionary adaptations that whales have developed that allow them to remain underwater without drawing breath for long periods of time. \u00a0The whales\u2019 need to come to the surface to breath is represented as a reason that the whaler should be humbled, as he is only so powerful and cannot chase the whale into the depths of the sea (Melville, 359). The spout adds more mystery to the whale by Ishmael\u2019s wonder as to what exactly is being expelled from the whale\u2019s blowhole \u2013 if there is anything besides water, and what form that water is in (Melville, 360-361).<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Coming full circle and returning to religion at the end of the chapter, Ishmael describes rainbows as rays from \u201cHeaven\u201d (Melville, 362). He discusses the idea that rainbows only appear when sunlight shines through water vapor\/mist, and thus presents the rainbows that sometime appear in the spouts of whales as religious symbols.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the following chapter, \u201cThe Tail,\u201d Ishmael describes the tail of the sperm whale and its motions in detail, and illustrates it as a thing of immense power and size, but also of delicate beauty and grace (Melville, 363-365). Ishmael states that \u201creal strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but often bestows it\u201d (Melville, 363). This sentence can be viewed in several manners. When applied to humans, there could be some gender connotations intended that would break down some of the gender binary \u2013 i.e., that \u201cstrong men\u201d can\/should have beauty, and \u201cbeautiful women\u201d can\/should have strength.\u00a0\u00a0 Ishmael also states that the sperm whales often use their tails when attacking ships, serving to place the tail as an element of foreboding.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The chapter ends somewhat ironically. The chapter is the description of the tail, but ends with the mention of the whale\u2019s face (367). In addition, although the entire chapter has been dedicated to describing the sperm whale\u2019s tail and how it is used, Ishmael states that he has an \u201cinability to express it\u201d (Melville, 366). He proceeds to state \u201cdissect him how I may, then,\u2026but\u2026.I know him not, and never will\u201d (Melville, 367). This again serves to add a sense of mystery to the whale. It also is humbling to mankind. Thirdly, it conveys the idea that whales are not just simple beings \u2013 a \u201cshell\u201d of a body and nothing inside \u2013 but that they have souls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Around two thirds of the way through Herman Melville\u2019s Moby Dick, there are two consecutive chapters dedicated to describing physical attributes of the sperm whale. The first of these, Chapter 85, is entitled \u201cThe Fountain\u201d and depicts the spouting of the whale. The eighty-sixth chapter is entitled \u201cThe Tail\u201d and discusses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-or-cetology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions\/1390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}