{"id":255,"date":"2010-01-30T16:15:18","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T20:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/engl177\/?p=255"},"modified":"2010-01-30T16:15:18","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T20:15:18","slug":"a-study-in-contrasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/?p=255","title":{"rendered":"A Study in Contrasts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The characters presented in the early chapters of <em>Moby Dick <\/em>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-\u00e0-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, \u2018And what is it, thought I, after all! It\u2019s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin\u2026\u2019 (Melville 20) As their relationship matures, Ishmael finds Queequeg\u2019s \u2018paganism\u2019 a more honest and noble mode of existence, in contradistinction to the \u2018civilized hypocrisies\u2019 and \u2018bland deceits\u2019 of the harsh Puritanism of New England.<\/p>\n<p>If Christian kindness has proven itself hollow (Melville 49), the <em>Pequod\u2019s <\/em>Captain Bildad becomes the representative of a certain form of piousness that cannot reconcile itself with the practicalities of everyday life, leading to Ishmael\u2019s rebuke of Christianity. For Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad\u2019s worst offense was his inaction during a particularly perilous journey to Japan with Captain Ahab.\u00a0 After presenting Queequeg with a tract titled \u201cThe Latter Day Coming; or No Time to Lose,\u201d Bildad implores Peleg if he never considered God\u2019s judgment in the moment of crisis in Japan. In a furious response, Peleg admonishes Bildad\u2019s piousness;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHear him, hear him now,\u201d cried Peleg, marching across the cabin, and thrusting his hands far down into his pockets,-\u201chear 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.\u201d (Melville 88).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In conclusion, the foundational dichotomy between intolerant religious views and work (where one&#8217;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&#8217;s characterization. One can assume that this theme will be made even more manifest once the <em>Pequod <\/em>sets sail<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Melville, Herman.\u00a0 <em>Moby Dick. <\/em>New York: Signet Classic,\u00a0 1998<em>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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-\u00e0-vis the main narrator Ishmael. Ishmael is portrayed as the tolerant pragmatist, quietly decrying insidious forms of discrimination in New [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","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=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}