Author Archives: Sam Ramirez

Isolation on the Pequod

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Chapter 35, The Mast-Head, offers a lot of substance on the theme of isolation. Ishmael brings the reader in, even dropping the reader into the narrative, referencing the reader to be thee with him while telling the story, “There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep…” (Melville, 169) The reader is now in the story while it’s being played out and drags you into the isolating experience it is to be on a ship. Melville also uses the stylistic choice of asyndetons to drag on the feeling of separation from the outside world. As if time stood still.

“There you stand, lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing… For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks…” (Melville, 169)

Ishmael is reinforcing the idea of isolation on the whaling ship, and not necessarily in a negative way but rather in a positive calming way. And although they are separated from the world they aren’t alone but rather forced to a life of zero privacy. Their entire world has become the Pequod.

question your values in order to understand more about yourself

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Chapters 4 through 12 had a few recurring themes such as questioning your own values, questioning the religious values imposed upon you, and even queer tendencies within seamen. Although these themes are beautifully presented and questioned throughout the chapters, I was in awe of the way Ishmael opened up to the reader about changing/challenging personal values and being more self aware in general. In chapter 10, A Bosom Friend, Ishmael is grappling between his own religious values and those of his dear friend Queequeg. Ishmael describes a spiritual like feeling toward his friend and rather than dismissing it, he practiced the art of opening up and accepted this curiosity.

“I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned “I began to feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that would have repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus drew me…Christian kindness has proved hollow courtesy.” (Melville, 57)

Ishmael was willing to question his own values and felt peace in not allowing what is expected of him to keep him from understanding more about himself and his new friend Queequeg. He found beauty in the unknown.That can be reflected in his love for the ocean. The ocean is filled with the unknown and sets Ishmael free in a way even prior to sailing on the boat. Ishmael can freely question his values and the religious values imposed on him. Things aren’t so simple and settled like on land but free and ever changing like taking to sea.

Melvilles Warning

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Herman Melville’s “Etymology” and “Extracts” preceding chapter one provides an insane amount of insight and context before starting the story of Ishmael. Although the etymology can be easily cast aside as readers usually begin with the first chapter, I believe Melville intended for the etymology and extracts to be read and be taken seriously (to an extent) as it provides context on how to approach the monstrosity of the book itself. Melville outright lets the reader know that he isn’t reliable and to read between lines. TO CLOSE READ! It’s genuinely insane how much thought went into the extracts as a warning to readers to NOT take his word seriously as you would the bible. “Therefore you must not in every case at least, take the higgley-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for veritable gospel cetology. Far from it.” (Extracts, paragraph 1) This warning gives a whole new meaning to reading the book and what it means to simply read any book. You must read between the lines and manipulate sentences to unlock their true meaning. This is a huge reason why I think this novel is important now as it was when it was published and many years later. There will always be a new lens to unlock, something for the reader to question, and new interpretations to be discovered. Taking this and applying it to how you read the novel takes pressure off its size and focuses on what you, as the reader, take from the story at hand. 

Now with the Extracts taken into consideration, the first sentence beginning chapter one can be picked apart, despite its simplicity. “Call me Ishmael” (Melville, 3) The narrator is starting the story with a friendly greeting but giving the reader a pseudonym. This can be simply the narrator being just friendly. But also revealing Ishmael’s narration as a flawed one and possibly unreliable. Melville put deep thought and detail in the information preceding the first chapter and I thank him for it.