Melville’s novel is peppered with chapters dedicated to illustrating the history of the various places that we inhabit throughout the book. I am focusing this essay on chapter 14 Nantucket; Particularly the exposition of the history of Nantucket. In the quote, Melville demonstrates an ongoing refusal to contribute to the erasure of the Native Americans of the land and how their contributions have been elemental in the construction of America. This passage struck me as important because Melville makes us, the readers, consider how the story of America is constructed and what is lost when truths are omitted.

The passage goes as follows: “Look now at the wondrous traditional story of how this island was settled by the red-men… in the olden times an eagle swooped down upon the New England coast, and carried off an infant Indian in his talons. With loud lament the parents saw their child borne out of sight over the wide waters. They resolved to follow in the same direction. Setting out in their canoes, after a perilous passage they discovered the island, and there they found an empty ivory casket, —the poor little Indian’s skeleton. What wonder, then, that these Nantucketers, born on the beach, should take to the sea for a livelihood! First they caught crabs and quohogs in the sand; grown bolder, they waded out with nets for more mackerel; more experienced, they pushed off in boats and captured cod; and at last, launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world; put an incessant belt of circumnavigations round it…and in all seasons and all oceans declared everlasting war with the mightiest animated mass that has survived the flood; most monstrous and most mountainous! That Himmalehan, salt-sea mastodon,” (Melville 69-70)

The first point that I want to draw attention to is Melville’s command to the reader, “look now”. He uses it often throughout the novel when he wants the reader to pay particular mind to what he is about to say. It is the way that he emphasizes the importance of the picture he wishes to paint. With this in mind he immediately draws our attention to the next claim he makes. The story does not start with western settlement. The story begins with the settlement of the Native American on the island. In using the word ‘traditional’ to begin this story, he also does something very insteresting; he makes it clear to the reader that this is an old story that was passed down lines of generations. This claim denies the assumption that history begins when the western settlers arrive and commit the story into writing or any kind of physical permanence. He gives attributes the importance of oral tradition in creating history. I find this fascinating because the common myth that goes into creating American exceptionalism is that of a virgin and uninhabited land. That the western settlers arrived and set the land to work and produce for the building of their country. This idea would have us believe that the amount of natives present in the continent at the time of settler arrivals to be of little note. A number of so little significance as to be neglected. Within the first line, Melville dismantles this idea and posits the story of the stolen baby as a sort of origin story for all the inhabitants of nantucket, regardless of race.

I now turn my attention to the next point of interest in the excerpt. “In the olden times and eagle swooped down upon the new ngland coast and carried off an infant indian in its talons…”. He starts with the telling of a myth rather than any factual information. I think Melville understands that a history is not just built on facts but also on the mythologizing aspect. If his aim is to show the reader what a unique an powerful nation America has become then it also needs to have this mythologized history. Just like that of the founding of Rome or the founding of the Aztec empire. While he is using the modern day whalers to create this American mythology around, he is also including the founding story to create grandiosity through antiquity. In short, He claims that like other empires, America—though a young country— cannot be said to have no long history as a land. The story of Nantucket then, is a story borne out of search; much like the story of the settler search for a land of possibilities and opportunity that we have grown up with.