{"id":371,"date":"2010-02-01T01:54:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T05:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/engl177\/?p=371"},"modified":"2010-02-01T01:54:46","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T05:54:46","slug":"defining-and-befriending-a-cannibal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/?p=371","title":{"rendered":"Defining and befriending a cannibal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melville courageously and yet tactfully utilizes the adventures of Ishmael to insert his own commentary regarding issues surrounding race in the 19th<\/sup> century. He highlights common racial divides, scrutinizes widely accepted racial prejudices of the time, and proposes a renewed meaning of racial coexistence. However, Melville\u2019s seemingly modern perception of race doesn\u2019t fully escape the grasp of numerous race related social constructions.<\/p>\n

Within the first 21 chapters of Moby Dick, Melville focuses his racial commentary around the budding friendship between Ishmael and his \u2018peddler of heads\u2019 bedfellow, Queequeg. A passage on page 48 from the chapter \u2018A Bosom Friend\u2019 in which Ishmael consciously commits to befriending Queequeg, highlights Ishmael\u2019s ironic acceptance and to a certain extent curious appraisal of Queequeg as a racially dissimilar friend.<\/p>\n

“Savage though he was, and hideously marred about the face\u2014at least to my taste\u2014his 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\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This passage exemplifies the fact that Melville\u2019s notion of racial serenity doesn\u2019t come without burdensome obstacles. In this passage Ishmael recognizes Queequeg as something beyond the color of his skin. He is able to identify \u2018traces of a simple honest heart\u2019 among other commendable traits. However, Ishmael persistently uses prejudicial labels such as \u2018savage\u2019, \u2018unearthly\u2019, and \u2018pagan\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The most interesting component of this passage is the surprising comparison Ishmael makes between Queequeg and George Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026but certain it was his head was phrenologically an excellent one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of General Washington\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a reader, the reference to George Washington came as a surprise to me. I didn\u2019t expect Ishmael to be willing to liken a \u2018savage\u2019 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\u2019s level of fame or respect. Additionally, Melville allows Ishmael to revert to his prejudicial tendencies by using the term \u2018cannibalistically developed\u2019, whatever that means, to define Queequeg.<\/p>\n

As the book progresses and Ishmael and Queequeg\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick<\/em>. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melville courageously and yet tactfully utilizes the adventures of Ishmael to insert his own commentary regarding issues surrounding race in the 19th century. He highlights common racial divides, scrutinizes widely accepted racial prejudices of the time, and proposes a renewed meaning of racial coexistence. However, Melville\u2019s seemingly modern perception of race doesn\u2019t fully escape the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[162,4323],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race","tag-ishmael","tag-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","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=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}