Category Archives: Essay 2

The Gilder: Let Faith Oust Fact; Let Fancy Oust Memory

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Starbuck had been an adversary for Ahab throughout the novel, but as the voyage progressed, Starbuck could only rely on hopeful illusions to face the noxious reality. In Chapter 114, The Gilder, Melville’s use of forceful diction and stark contrasts reveals how humans cling to imagination to cope with horrifying truths.

Melville uses forceful diction to show Starbuck’s coping mechanisms. On page 535, Melville wrote in Starbuck’s perspective, “‘Loveliness unfathomable, as ever lover saw in his young bride’s eye!—Tell me not of thy teeth-tiered sharks, and thy kidnapping cannibal ways.’” “Loveliness unfathomable” tells of Starbuck wanting to believe in a positive outcome, and “Tell me not of–” tells of the truths Starbuck wants to reject; the facts that have been happening. He wants to forget and go home, a common coping mechanism for people with trauma.

Melville uses stark contrasts to show Starbuck’s mental state. He wrote Starbuck to explicitly say this because Starbuck was holding on to what little hope he had left. On page 535, Starbuck continued, “‘Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe.’” The contrasts, especially the last line, paints Starbuck’s psychological struggle and reliance on imagination. The word “oust” here means to remove, meaning Starbuck wants to replace fact with faith, and memory with “fancy”. Perhaps here, fancy means imagination, and in this case, Starbuck is saying he’d rather believe in faith and imagination than accept fact and memory. This ties into the religious context, where believing that a mental construct exists feels more satisfying than facing reality. 

Melville’s use of diction and contrasts highlights Starbuck’s mentality. The diction had shown Starbuck’s conviction with his iron-willed beliefs. The contrasts between faith/fancy and fact/memory show not only the internal conflict in Starbuck’s morals, but also how he wants to be a good man in a world of cruelty. Applicably, people in real life struggle more in living with fact and memory than believing themselves in faith and imagination.

There is a Wisdom that is Woe; But there is a Woe that is Madness

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On the diverse nation-state of the whale ship Pequod, Pip is one of the few representatives of African-Americans. When jettisoned from a whaleboat, Pip’s perceived loss of sanity is actually the procuring of higher consciousness.  “God’s foot on the treadle of the loom” reveals to him his predisposed, hopeless role in society. Pip beholds his lack of freedom, even as a supposedly free African American. He comprehends the interminable suffering of man, of African-American man. In this omniscient state, Pip is altered into a rejection of his joyous self. He let’s go of his life-endearing character and gives in to African American’s expected function in the nation, as hollow performer. By forcing Pip into enlightenment, Melville impels his readers to examine the true sentiments behind the Fugitive Slave Act: society’s disregard of the suffering of their fellow man.

Pip is introduced directly after Ahab announces his true intentions for the Pequod, in the Midnight, Forecastle. While the other sailors sing and cast their convictions of this doomed mission, they demand Pip to play his tambourine: “Pip! Little Pip! Hurrah with your tambourine!… Here you are Pip… up you mount! Go it, Pip! Bang it, bell-boy! Rig it, dig it, stig it, quig it, bell-boy!” (188-189) While the other sailors assert their viewpoints and become representatives of their homelands, Pip is forced to be entertainer. Even in the absence of his tambourine, they tell him to become the instrument: “beat they belly then and wag thy ears… Rattle thy teeth then and make a pagoda of thyself.” (188-189)”. Not just his talent, but his body merely exists to serve others. The sailors, ignoring his resistance to play, “Pip! Hurrah with your tambourine! don’t know where it is…” (188) instill his role in society as only existing for the amusement of others. Contrary to his emplacement, Pip holds a sense of dignity. Melville establishes Pip’s sense of self-respect by giving him the last words in this chapter. Pip’s soliloquy ends in prayer: “Oh, thou big white God aloft there somewhere in yon darkness, have mercy on this small black boy down here” (193) Although Pip has been placed at the bottom dregs of this make-shift nation, he still holds onto faith, a hope that God may have mercy on him. Pip’s prayer expresses a sense of optimism. Due to this optimism, Pip continues to believe he has control over his own fate. Beneath Pip’s plea, Melville arranges five asterisks ***** to close the chapter. These five asterisks not only conclude the chapter, but they also conclude Pip’s sanity. The asterisks symbolize that this petition for salvation is Pip’s final.

 Pip returns to the novel in his transformative chapter. Leaping from a boat, stranded at sea Pip is “carried down alive to wondrous depths, where… the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps… Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of water heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom; and spoke it” (453-454) In his abandonment, Pip undergoes a wisdom-induced metamorphosis. This alteration saw Pip, who “loved life, and all its peaceable securities” reject his former self. “Pip? Whom ye call Pip?” (567) His vision of the “joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, the… God-omnipresent” (453) divulges to him his harsh reality: regardless of freedom, Pip, and African Americans, are seen as entertainer, a body that exists for the use of others. “the unwarped, primal world” (453) reveals to him the interminable suffering of the Black American. His body remains intact, but the sea “drowned the infinite of his soul.” Pip’s soul has been lost, he is now just a shell of the African American experience.

The shell that is called Pip, bearing life’s unalterable course for African Americans, falls into the role that is initially bestowed upon him. His former self is gone: “Pip? Whom ye call Pip? Pip jumped from the whaleboat. Pip’s missing… Who art thou, boy? Bell-boy, sir; ship’s-crier; ding, dong, ding!” (567) Pip rejects his joyous, brilliant, questioning self and assumes the role of performer just as his shipmates expect. He becomes the bell-boy they demanded during their midnight in the forecastle. In his mad monologues, he constantly sings: “Rig a dig, dig, dig!” “ding, dong, ding!” These chants are reminiscent of what was bellowed at him in the forecastle: “Rig it, dig it, stig it, quig it bell-boy!” (189) Pip saw his role in society and stopped fighting it, “he saw God’s foot on the treadle of the loom; and spoke it” (453) Mimicking the demands placed on him as entertainer, cements Pip’s place in society that was unveiled to him during his abandonment; he gives in to his expected function in the nation, bell-boy.

Pip’s revelation of his repressed place in society is new to him, but he finds that the rest of the world has always seen him this way, as constrained performer. His first act of wisdom/sanity is reading the doubloon. While others in the crew read the doubloon and divulge elements of their character, Pip merely says: “I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look… And I, you and he; and we ye and they, are all bats; and I’m a crow” (475). Ishmael shrugs this off, thinking that Pip is reciting his grammar. In reality, Pip is showing his understanding of how humanity views his role in life. All of humanity recognizes the cruelty of slavery and racism. Like Pip says, “they are all bats”, complacently hanging upside down, upholding the system with their silence, and letting the crow go about with his entertainment; cawing, pleading for unanswered help. Pip’s interpretation when reading the doubloon is that humanity has disregarded his people’s suffering.  

Pip indeed goes missing. He has forsaken his former self because “he died a coward; died all a’shiver… Hark ye; if ye find Pip, tell all the Antilles he’s a runaway; a coward, a coward, a coward!” (523) Pip rejects his former self’s cowardice, he discards his fear because he no longer lives with expectations of joy for life. Pip, the fearful, jumps from the boat because he loves life so much. Enlightened Pip repeatedly states, “Shame upon all cowards—shame upon them!” (523) He has no favorable feelings towards life anymore, and he does not fear losing it, so he resents cowardice. Intriguingly, Pip, who seems to search for himself, actually knows where his soul must be, “Seek out one Pip… I think he’s in those far Antilles.” (522) His soul ends up in the Antilles with his ancestors who have been left for dead in the middle passage. This further suggests Pip’s newfound mindfulness of the suffering of his people and his role in society. He chastises his lost soul as a “runaway, a coward”, which explicitly cites language in reference to slavery. It provokes sentiments of the Fugitive Slave Act. Runaway, cowardice Pip, “Jerk him off; we haul in no cowards here” (567) Omniscient Pip is denying salvation towards his soul. The narrative of ‘do not save him’ symbolizes the northern man’s predicament: man must deny escaped slaves salvation into their free states. Abandoning Pip’s soul is abandoning all African Americans to toil in the south.

Ahab becomes the only friend of Pip’s. Madness hinders madness. This unlikely friendship is even more surprising when it is formed by Ahab. In witnessing Pip’s awakening, Ahab stretches out a hand to Pip: “What’s this?” Pip exclaims, “Here’s velvet shark skin’ intently gazing at Ahab’s hand, and feeling it, ‘Ah now, had poor Pip but felt so kind a thing as this, perhaps he had ne’er been lost!” (567) Pip reignites a spark of hope for humanity as he experiences Ahab’s benevolence towards him. When he exclaims that “perhaps he ne’er been lost” if he experienced this compassion sooner, it reaffirms what he experienced deserted in the sea. If Pip had ever felt a sense of gentleness towards him, if he had only been treated as an equal, he would have never been exposed to the God-omnipresent harsh reality of the African American struggle. Ahab’s benevolence demonstrates humanity’s lack of decency, for Ahab has shaken off societal norms. Pip continues: “Oh, sir, let old Perth now come and rivet these two hands together; the black one with the white, for I will not let this go.” Using Ahab to demonstrate social cohesion indicates to the reader that it takes the complete disregard of societal conventions to produce true benevolence to their fellow man. Melville’s imploration for racial harmony reprimands society for inaction.

For Pip, the bestowment of omniscient knowledge drives him mad. This is due to his role in society as an African American during the dissension of slavery. Pip beholds the interminable suffering of his race. Discovering his lack of agency causes him to relinquish his bright self and surrender to societal preconceptions. Pip’s representation of African Americans exemplifies the crippling effects of society’s constrained roles. By forcing a free man to exist solely as entertainer, his humanity is stripped from him. Melville delivers Pip’s jovial soul to his ancestors in the Antilles but leaves his shell of insanity behind to critique the nation of the Pequod.

Recent discovery of a “Carnivorous Death Ball” I believe to be the “colossal orbs” that Pip witnessed while abandoned at sea.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a69234817/carnivorous-death-ball/

Essay 2: Motherhood, Youth, and Loss

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It was through the tireless efforts of whaling and the pursuit, harvesting, and selling of whale bodies, namely spermaceti, that the newly born United States grew to be an economic and worldly powerhouse. Upon the worn wooden decks of American whaling ships, held sailors who, dedicated to the opportunities that a successful chase ensued, waited with bated breath and watched with eager, sea-splintered eyes for victims. The excitement of the hunt dominates the majority of the focus throughout Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, whether it is through a detailed depiction of the harpooning process or the loud, moment-to-moment account of the happenings of each person; the chase is narrated in rushed, keen tones. However, while the pursuit of a whale ends in profit, in the jars, pots, and head-topped boilers, it also ends in death and loss – the negative consequences that are often left unaddressed and unconsidered. 

When it is considered, the losses that occur in the pursuit of whales and profit, it is hardly done with an emphasis on the whale or the victim. This part of whaling, the cost of life that is required for human profit and capitalistic pursuit, is hardly acknowledged, except for one moment. In chapter 87, titled “The Grand Armada,” the Pequod encounters an extraordinary “armada” of whales and, in the tireless pursuit of the hunt, gets trapped in the very center of the group, emerging in a still, gentle calm. Beyond the depiction of this massive grouping, or school, of whales as a naval battalion organized and ready to fight, Ishmael looks down, interrupting our maritime warescene and taking a breath. It’s in Ishmael’s recognition of “the women and children of [the] routed host” of this whale formation that Melville deliberately pauses, taking the reader’s focus away from the battle drum of the great Leviathans and instead, peering into the watery realities of female and young whales (Melville 423). At this moment, Melville encourages readers to reflect on the cost of whaling and its impact on those affected, touching on and critiquing the broader moral implications of humanity’s capitalistic pursuits through reflections on motherhood, youth, and the consequences of loss. 

It is in the chase of whales and the drumbeat of the pursuit that Melville forces the focus away from the single considerations of the possibilities for monetary gain from killing and harvesting a whale to not only reflect on the water around them, but make eye contact with the very beings that exist in it. Almost as if, in this moment, Melville is encouraging the reader to remember that it is a life that you are pursuing, and to recall its origins and how it came to be. Remember that it too has a mother and children, that it lives a life bigger than being the pursee of opportunistic capitalist gain. This reflective moment is not a stance against whaling or capitalism as a whole, but rather a radical encouragement of empathy and awareness in consumption.

Short Essay 2

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Herman Melville’s whale exists as a contradiction, a face of human fallacy. Melville writes the whale as a being that changes face depending on who is looking, something felt in Chapter 100 ‘Leg and Arm’. Melville repositions the whale’s demeanor in this scene, “So what you take for the White Whale’s malice is only his awkwardness.” In just one sentence, Melville rewrites the whale not as the overarching villain in a human story, but as a victim in a story of human error. For nearly the entire novel, there is an attempt to understand a multifaceted creature under the human lens of binary, binary that is shaped by our language. This sentence is a microcosm of Melville’s book, an ask of the reader to step out of the binary of language and read the multifaceted whale differently. In asking his readers to read outside of binary, Melville offers a hope that the reader will reread their society, and its humans, with a much fuller and forgiving scope. 

In this repositioning, there exists a whale who is both violent and innocent, a creature of contradiction. Ahab sees the whale as a singular creature whose entire existence is ‘malice’, a personification of the violence that was done onto Ahab. In this passage, alternative voices attempt to enter Ahab’s narrative to rewrite the scene of violence that left Ahab without a leg. The White Whale is rebranded as ‘awkward’, an intentional word choice that invokes a feeling of innocence. In choosing to rewrite the whale as ‘awkward’, Melville creates a new narrative of a being that does not understand its own strength, naive of its ability to do violence. The whale is awkward, unnatural to behavioral implications of largeness. The whale is large but docile, yet any action of violence, even in self-defense, perpetuates the narrative of binary thinking that encloses the largeness of the whale. This whale does not know the binary, the binary is a human invention in an attempt to delegate the natural world into neat systems. Ahab’s whale is not malicious or defenseless, it is ‘awkward’ in its coexistence of largeness and meekness, enveloping multiple truths.

By rereading the whale as ‘awkward’, Melville takes the reader outside of the binary. This in itself is challenging the nature of language, which is ultimately shaped by binary oppositions. As language fails to obviously display Melville’s challenge, it is up to the reader to make these connections as Ishamel tries chapter after chapter to define the multifaceted through binary thinking, serving as an allegory of human failure to define nature. Melville asks the reader to be ‘awkward’ in our understanding of the world, to embody the contradictions and queerness of nature. Under the binary lens of nature, the whale is queer in its continuous refusal to have a singular definition or to be defined solely in opposition to another. Ahab’s inability to see the whale as anything but the singular definition of ‘malice’ leaves out a completely new experience of the whale, one that ultimately is detrimental to both parties. 

Ahab’s relationship with the whale is representative of the social consequences on land for individuals who represent the queer and multifaceted. As Ahab already has his own story of the whale’s nature. Shed in a singular negative light, the whale faces the real life consequences of Ahab’s miseducation. This is translated on land through images of prejudice where Melville writes from, while simultaneously remaining contemporary. Not only is the whale suffering from Ahab’s inability to see its multiple faces, Ahab is putting himself and others in dangerous positions driven by his misunderstanding. The whale is ‘othered’, parallel to humans who fail at resembling the narrative of whiteness in a binary society. Those who are not on one side of the binary fall onto the side of the ‘other’, white vs. black and good vs. evil, it is binaries that invoke a sense of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Melville uses the multitude of the whale to depict the contradictions that coexist in humans, the wavy nature of queerness that finds its way onto binary land. The whale reaps the consequences of queerness in this narrative, but Ahab also loses something too. Ahab loses the ability to connect with something beyond his realm of knowledge, choosing ignorance rather than accepting he does not know everything. Knowledge is power for Ahab, and in believing he knows the whale and its ‘malice’, he loses out on his own life, opting instead to chase a fictional beast. 

The whale is the embodiment of multitude, Ahab chooses to ‘take’ a singular face of the whale, owning a piece of it. In ‘taking’ the whale’s malice, as Melville writes it, there is this sense of ownership through the belief of knowing the whale’s true nature. Ahab believes he is smarter than the whale is. Knowledge is Ahab’s ultimate power over the whale and it is also where he is mistaken. To know is to understand, yet Ahab knows nothing, he ‘takes’ what he wants from the whale without regarding anything else. He ‘takes’ what fits into the narrative he writes. In believing in his own intelligence and its deficiency in the whale, Ahab assumes he has a right to destroy the whale by pure reason; reason given by knowing the whale better than it knows itself. The whale is a dumb creature, violent and large, fitting the binary that embodies the parts of nature we cannot control, therefore naming it the ‘other’ and assigning the negative traits from that side of the binary. The whale knows nothing, and knowledge is the medium that Ahab uses in his narrative to defend his actions. 

Melville’s entire novel can be read from a multitude of perspectives, something that is carried in Chapter 100 with the questioning the narrative presented thus far. For a majority of the novel, we are trapped on Ahab’s ship and his narrative, nearly believing his version of the whale ourselves. Melville brings us back from that cusp with the simple inclusion of reframing what Ahab thinks he knows, and by extension what the reader knows. By first introducing us to the whale’s singular face of ‘malice’ via Ahab’s narrative, there is this transition beyond the individual experience in Chapter 100, an understanding that a singular experience cannot be read as the entirety of the whale, a creature our language alone cannot define. The whale is queer, is the ‘other’ that we fail to understand on land; Chapter 100 begs us to ask something differently, outside of the binary we have learned to see the world in. Melville asks us to unlearn the restrictions we put on one another, and by extension our own selves as well. 

Essay 2 – Moby-Dick or, The Whale Against Capitalism

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Herman Melville’s novel, Moby-Dick, serves as a critique of capitalism and its effect on American society. Throughout the novel Melville uses the whaling industry as a metaphor for capitalism; he demonstrates how the life-threatening labor of workers is used for the enrichment of others, how crewmembers on the Pequod are merely seen as a commodity for profit, how material wealth overrides the morality of those working and living in a capitalist society, and the disconnect between the consumer and the laborer. The novel shows readers that capitalism in America has created an individualistic society in which profit and gain is more important than morals and lives.

In Chapter 16, titled “The Ship,” Ishmael meets Captain Peleg and Captain Bildad, the owners of the Pequod, for the first time prior to the ship’s departure. Being the owners of the ship, both the captains will take a majority of the profit that is made from the Pequod’s whaling expedition. However neither one of them will step foot on the ship during its journey, and instead they will stay on land and reap the benefits of the hardworking and life-threatening labor done by the crew members of the Pequod: “ ‘Thou are speaking to Captain Peleg – that’s who ye are speaking to, young man. It belongs to me and Captain Bildad to see the Pequod fitted out for the voyage, and supplied with all her needs, including crew. We are part owners and agents…’ People in Nantucket invest their money in whaling vessels, the same way that you do yours in approved state stocks bringing in good interest” (Melville 80-82). Captain Peleg and Bildad are able to avoid the risks of whaling, but by being owners of the ship they will still share most of the profit earned by the crew members during the Pequod’s dangerous expedition. This shows the disparity in industrial capitalism; the ones at the top will do the least amount of labor, yet they will still make the most amount of money. Melville compares the investment and ownership of whaling vessels to that of the reader’s investment in stocks. Like some stocks, the money that comes with whaling involves destruction, corruption, and death. Putting a profit over a life, whether it be whale or human, shows the immorality of the industry, and how capitalism has created a society in which people are only so interested in their own gain that they don’t care what has to be done in order to get it.

In Chapter 93, “The Castaway,” Melville uses the character Pip to highlight how workers are seen as a commodity for profit in American capitalist society. While chasing a whale, Pip leaps overboard and is caught by the rope connected to the whale. With the only option to save him being to cut the rope and freeing the whale, Pip is reluctantly saved by Stubb, who berates him for the incident: “ ‘Stick to the boat, Pip, or by the Lord, I wont pick you if you jump; mind that. We can’t afford to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would sell for thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama. Bear that in mind, and don’t jump any more.’ Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted, that though man loves his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence” (Melville 452). Pip is told by Stubb that his life is not worth more than any amount of money that could be made from the whale. Profit over life, unsurprising considering the money is made off of the killing of whales. Melville shows the harsh reality of the industry, how workers are seen as expendable and should not be considered anything more than a commodity and a way to gain wealth. Directly after this, Pip falls overboard once more, and the cruelty of capitalism is shown in full effect: “Pip jumped again… when the whale started to run, Pip was left behind on the sea, like a hurried traveller’s trunk. Alas! Stubb was but too true to his word… Stubb’s inexorable back was turned upon him; and the whale was winged. In three minutes, a whole mile of shoreless ocean was between Pip and Stubb… For the rest, blame not Stubb too hardly. The thing is common in that fishery” (Melville 452-454). This time, Stubb sticks to his word and puts the potential profit of the whale over the life of Pip. Melville also points out how this is a common occurrence in the industry, and to not judge Stubb too harshly for his immoral decision. Too often it is seen in America that the lives of workers are less important than the money that is made off of them. Capitalism has created a society that does not care about the loss of life so long as the money keeps coming in. Pip’s life did not matter to Stubb or to any of the other members on the boat, as they were too focused on killing the whale that could make them some money. Perhaps even more so, Melville uses Pip, a Black American, to demonstrate how another industry puts the importance of profit over life and morality; slavery. Still the major issue in America at the time of the novel’s publication, slavery is capitalism in its most cruel form. The gaining of profit off of the buying and selling of humans, forcing them into unpaid labor, and treating them like they are inferior. This chapter goes to the full extent in showing the brutality and viciousness of capitalism in America, and how money overrides morals.

Throughout the novel Melville shows the dangers of the whaling industry. He goes into the harsh details of killing whales and the production of whale oil, a product used by many Americans at the time; by doing so Melville is able to demonstrate the disconnect between consumers and laborers under capitalism. In Chapter 61, titled “Stubb Kills a Whale,” Melville gives the reader a brutal detailing on the killing of a whale by Stubb: “And now abating in his flurry, the whale once more rolled out into view; surging from side to side; spasmodically dilating and contracting his spout-hole, with sharp, cracking, agonized respirations. At last, gush after gush of clotted red gore, as if it had been the purple lees of red wine, shot into the frighted air; and falling back again, ran dripping down his motionless flanks into the sea. His heart had burst! ‘He’s dead, Mr. Stubb,’ said Tashtego” (Melville 311-312). The production of whale oil comes at a cost. The harsh killing of whales in a most vicious form, of course dangerous for whales but also the men tasked with killing them. Consumers are not the ones going out into the ocean and harpooning a whale until it is dead, yet they are the ones using the oil for simple things like candles, lamps, and soap. Another example of this occurs in Chapter 96, “The Try-Works.” In this chapter, the reader is introduced to the process of turning whale fat into oil, something that many consumers of the product do not see: “These fritters feed the flames… the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body. Would that he consumed his own smoke! for his smoke is horrible to inhale, and inhale it you must, and not only that, but you must live in it for the time. It has an unspeakable, wild, Hindoo odor about it, such as may lurk in the vicinity of the funereal pyres. It smells like the left wing of the day of judgement; it is an argument for the pit” (Melville 462). This description of the creation of whale oil shows a side that the consumer does not see; workers in harsh conditions, breathing in smoke that is not meant to be inhaled, working in a strong stench of burning blubber, the Pequod is both a ship and an industrial factory. The whaling industry makes its profit off the ignorance of their consumers, no doubt hiding the harsh realities that go into it. 

Herman Melville’s novel, Moby-Dick, is a critique of capitalism and how it has severely affected American society. Melville uses the whaling industry as a critical analysis on capitalism, demonstrating how the poor treatment of workers, the disparity between consumer and laborer, and the immorality of capitalism has turned America into a country in which profit is more important than lives, whether that life be whale or human.

Essay 2

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Moby Dick is many things. A drama. A guide to whaling. And a comedy. The exchange between Stubb and the translator on page 444 of the novel is exactly that. In between the serious themes tackled within the novel, it is a breath of fresh air.

In this passage, Melville uses this miscommunication between Stubb and the translator to show how humor emerges from perception, showing how human understanding, through language, attitude, or even intention, is fundamentally unreliable. Through this mistranslation, and the clash between Stubb’s remarks and the translator’s attempt to dispose of the rotting whale corpse, Melville is suggesting that humor, denial, and narrative distortion can be and are a survival mechanism against the constant presence of death found at sea. This miscommunication and interpretation brings to light the unreliablness of human understanding.

The passage starts with a remark from Stubb, which is said to the translator aboard the Rosebud. “Why,” said Stubb . . . “you may as well begin by telling him that he looks a sort of babyish to me””. Sailors are stuck with the same people for years at a time. And, like eating the same meal over and over again, they became desensitized to societal expectations. That, and Stubb is a dick. These two factors lead to this comment.

The use of the phrase “you may as well” suggests that Stubb would much rather not be doing this chore; instead, he would rather be hunting for the dubloon or talking to his shipmates. 

It reflects Stubb’s characteristic bluntness and refusal to take even mundane encounters seriously. 

And what about the use of “sort of a babyish”? The insult is small, petty, and thoroughly devoid of the gravity of being at sea. In the midst of this voyage, which has and will be marked by peril, disease, and the looming threat of Moby Dick, calling someone “babyish” is absurdly trivial. Yet that triviality is precisely what makes it humorous and characteristic of Stubb: he reduces the intensity of the environment through levity, using this understatement as a shield against the fear and harsh realities constantly enveloping him and the crews on both ships. The softness of said language also underscores Stubb’s worldview. He rarely takes situations seriously, opting instead for mockery and ridicule. By choosing such an insult, Melville characterizes Stubb’s personality, and at the same time contrasts the human instinct toward humor with the severity of life aboard the Pequod.

Beyond its psychological function, Stubb’s insult also highlights the social hierarchy and dynamics aboard whaling ships. By infantilizing the translator, Stubb not only asserts dominance over him but also subtly reinforces the crew’s broader chain of authority and camaraderie. Humor and ridicule are tools that sailors often use to negotiate power, status, and social cohesion in the confined space of a whaling vessel. The playful nature of Stubb’s remark allows him to test boundaries and establish social footing without provoking a serious conflict between the two vessels. Meanwhile, the translator’s response, whether intentional or accidental, demonstrates how those higher in the “social class pyramid” easily manipulate or reinterpret language to their advantage, asserting agency. This moment, therefore, operates as both a personal and social form of comedy that becomes a way to navigate relationships, assert control, and survive psychologically within the precarious social environment of the Pequod.

Another layer of comedy found in this exchange arises from the physical and sensory environment aboard the Rosebud. The stench of the decomposing whale, the confined quarters, and the constant exposure to the dangers of whaling create conditions in which the perception of everyone is warped. Humor, in this sense, emerges as a response to the extreme sensory burden of life at sea and adds to the absurdity of Stubb’s insult, which is amplified because the characters are operating in such an overwhelming environment. 

Through one word, “babyish”, the reader can infer that Stubb is treating the translator as if he were a child. He is being condescending and is showing patronizing behavior that characterizes Stubb’s maturity even more than that of the translator.

A big question that permeates this conversation is: Does the translator even speak English? Or is he just using this opportunity to his advantage? He “translates” Stubb’s insult as, “only yesterday his ship spoke a vessel, whose captain and chief-mate, with six sailors, had all died of a fever caught from a blasted whale they had brought alongside.” No reaction to the insult whatsoever. 

Earlier, within the same chapter, Ishmael notes that occasionally pairs of them would drop their work and run up to the masthead to get some fresh air. Imagine living in that stench every day. Any of those other sailors probably would have done the same thing as the translator, just to be able to breathe through their nostrils again. So really, it could be either answer. 

The translator’s dramatic response, whether misinformed or opportunistic, is a practical strategy to improve his working conditions, and to simply cope with the constant sensory assault of the rotting corpse. Melville suggests that survival requires flexible interpretation of reality: humor, exaggeration, or distortion can all serve functional purposes in response to extreme conditions.

His  narrative strategy is the exact opposite of Stubb’s insult, but equally as telling. By turning it into a tale of death and fever, he reframes the situation in a way that grants him leverage and hopefully improves his living conditions. This distortion of truth is a desperate attempt to reclaim control over an environment that has left him powerless. Through this “translation”, Melville also implies  that distortion, exaggeration, and even miscommunication can and do serve as tools for psychological survival, which is seen in both lines of dialogue.

By placing the reader in this stinky and gross context, Melville demonstrates how physical discomfort and extreme conditions can distort social interactions and communication, turning even a minor, immature insult into one of narrative and comedic complexity. The environment allows the reader to link Stubb’s humor not only to psychology and hierarchy, but also to the realities of life on a whaling ship. Ultimately, the environment shapes perception and reactions from both characters.

It also produces humor, not through Stubb’s insult itself, but through the irony of miscommunication and mistranslation. The reader occupies a privileged position within this conversation: they know exactly what Stubb said and can see how wildly the translator’s version departs from it.

In this sense, the passage’s humor isn’t superficial: it is born directly out of suffering and the need to cope with it. Stubb’s insults are a form of resilience, a means by which he preserves his sanity amid the omnipresent threat of death and the mediocrity of everyday life on the ship. Life at sea is unpredictable, violent, and frequently fatal. The Pequod’s sailors are constantly confronted with their mortality, from dangerous hunts to disease and accidents, which come to fruition with their ultimate demise. Stubb’s levity and flippant “babyish” remark allow him to navigate this precarious existence without succumbing to despair. Similarly, the translator’s narrative exaggeration and mistranslation can be seen as a method of reclaiming agency in a threatening environment, turning passive endurance into active manipulation. Both men employ different strategies, yet both are used as shields against the ever-present specter of death found on whaling ships.

Moreover, this interaction underscores another theme in Melville’s novel: the unreliability of human perception, which begins with Ishmael’s introduction and continues throughout the novel.

Readers are reminded that all narratives are filtered through subjective lenses. Each person interprets events according to personal experience, mood, and survival strategies. Both perspectives in this conversation reveal the instability of meaning when filtered through an individual’s perception. Melville is demonstrating how human understanding is not objective; it is mediated by context, experience, and psychological need. This conversation exemplifies the novel’s broader concerns: truth is never absolute, and interpretation is always subjective.

In conclusion, throughout this brief but vivid exchange, Melville reveals how language can simultaneously amuse, distort, and protect. Miscommunication serves as a form of humor, but it ultimately exposes the deeper truth that human beings rarely perceive the world as it is. Instead, they reshape meaning to suit their needs. To survive, deny, persuade, and endure the hardships of this world. The clash between Stubb’s flippant insult and the translator’s horrid interpretation fully encapsulates one of the novel’s central insights: that each person has their own perception of events, and that the truth is always filtered through the biased eye of the beholder.

Essay #2: The Quadrant

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Nearing the end of the chapter, after Ahab has sold his soul to the devil himself and becomes the devil’s reincarnate on the Pequod, the whole dynamic shifts as the crew become appalled of the branded Ahab. After the commencement of the forge, Ahab feels entitled to freewill in an agency that liberates him of earthly materials dictating his life trajectory. The sun and the quadrant, working side by side, to indicate where he should go is almost like mockery for Ahab because it reveals that his life is fated to the world instead of full transcendence only the sun can be. He realizes from there that his goal to find and kill Moby Dick is of his own device and not a heroic reverence from the heavens or God; and with this reality, is angered by the truth that he is a pawn wrestling his own, tormentous thoughts in order to escape his true individuality he is ashamed of. Here, he finally questions his power position in the structure of the Pequod as it is his only defining, living validation of who he is in the hierarchy on the seas. “The Quadrant” is a discussion of Ahab’s refusal to let the social hierarchy cease to exist, while also striving to find transcendent freewill and identity for himself after taking an oath with the devil in the forge. 

First, it is presented in the passage that Ahab feels entitled to sharing the omniscient power of the sun because he has already branded himself anew. This anticipation to such power is seen when he initially questions the sun first, exclaiming, “This instant thou must be eyeing him. These eyes of mine look into the very eye that is even now beholding him;…and into the eye that is even now equally beholding the objects of the unknown…thou sun!”(Melville 544) Ahab is interrogating the sun, even at a point where he personifies the sun and feels betrayed by its secretive notions toward him. By isolating the sun as a very representative of Ahab, the sun transforms into this ally that Ahab now earns to possess in class rank because of his new establishment with the forge; he feels entitled to the knowledge of everything, which becomes a discussion of Ahab pronouncing his superiority to divide rank and class in the boat. He believes he has every right to the power because he, as a captain, has the ability to earn the highest rank through willpower, devotion, and crazed fanaticism in his goal– to kill the white whale. To talk to the sun is an outward representation of Ahab’s crazed temptation to cross mother nature’s bound; and, afterward, an expected response from the sun is a demonstration of his delusioned give-and-take dynamic one often expects in the hierarchy. Discourse with the sun can be an exaggeration to Ahab’s frustration, however, if this were the case, then all Ahab’s notions of forging the harpoon with Pagan blood would have been all for nothing to the novel. Moreover, his instigative tone with the sun is regarded as him directly speaking to the sun.   

By breaking the instrumental device to know where the boat’s latitude should be is also a sign of Ahab becoming mentally insane, but also an indication that he heavily believes in the power that class divide holds. He vehemently seethes, “no longer will I guide my earthly way by thee…by log and by line, these shall conduct me…”(Melville 544) The more corrupt and rich someone is, the more one believes they are able to manipulate and resist working class conditions. The Parsee’s shock at what Ahab has done is evidence that what was initiated in breaking their way to navigate the seas is nearly impossible. His reaction to the words above are indicative of our supposed reactions, because what Ahab has done is intended to be ridiculous and unbelievable. But, why does this particular scene matter? It proves critical to reading the validity of insanity Ahab definitely has in light of embodying his position as captain. He knows, with the presence of class divide and no law written in the seas far from land, he becomes “immortalized”, hence breaking the tool. This destroying act is not simply frustration, but deeply, it is Ahab’s way of dominating his superior power over the rest of the crew. 

From feeling betrayed by the sun as if it was his confidant and breaking the quadrant device to test his immortality, The passage also deals with science and the spiritual in constructing Ahab’s freewill. Ahab interestingly detests the sun in this moment, but also acknowledges its power, and with that, calls out science for “insulting the sun” because it limits his autonomy in becoming omniscient and omnipotent as the sun. “…and yet with thy impotence, thou insultest the sun! Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy; and cursed be all things that cast man’s eyes aloft to heaven…”(Melville 544). While Ahab feels betrayed by the sun, he understands he is subject to its power; by this reading, he articulates class divide, but eventually ends up abandoning it for “his log and line”, fully depending on his own strength which marks his dictatorship on the Pequod. With constructing dialogue and conflict among the sun and the quadrant as personified agents, these objects take upon a new life form in the novel. He doesn’t just deal with sun and device, but in their roles, deals with the conflict of what it means to be human in the face of these constructs; does Ahab abide by the ship’s design or abide by his crazed psychotic obsession?  The compass reminds him of his weak mortality as a human, while the sun reminds him about the class divide, and what he can be with the illusion of superiority and corruption overtaking his mind. The compass acts as a literal power divide, reminding Ahab consciously that he is still a pawn of his own evil doings; as the blood pact made in the forge solidifies the fact he suffers and assuages his own tormentous thoughts, making it more of spiritual consequence out of his own shame of facing himself, rather than him being the chosen one to slay this white whale.

In this escapism, Stubb at the end of the chapter calls out Ahab’s insecurity. Stubb knows Ahab feels emasculated and does not want to deal with his consequences by defying death even after the whale is slain. Stubb rather patronizes, “Here some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine; swears that I must play them, and no others.” And damn me Ahab, but thou actest right; live in the game and die in it!”(Melville 545) To “live in the game and die in it”, Stubb calls out Ahab’s escapism in facing himself, suggesting that agency and free will was there for Ahab before his obsession overtook him, making him sell his soul to the devil. By acting right, he reveals Ahab’s evident abuse of his captain position in the hierarchy that isolates himself from the rest of the working class crew. “Game” in the line addresses the existence of class divide, and “to die in it” suggests that Ahab’s feelings of emasculation in the social rank is because he is cheating his way through life and death by dealing with the devil’s work. At the same time, he is too egotistical at this point to ask his knights below him for counsel because that would “erase” the demarcation line of captain and crew he feels he has identity and duty to. By understanding he societally has the upper hand, and madness makes a man, Stubb reveals that Ahab in this moment is justifying his insanity with the literal divide of class; to question the captain would be out of line for Stubb because he would not understand Ahab. In a way, Ahab’s deflection of the blame is his projection of what he feels; and as a result, he “infantalizes” those below him as he inevitably faces the horror of himself. Stubb overall instigates here in the text that hiding behind a secure, dillusioned sense of grandiose entitlement in the class divide is not a defining aspect of who one really is– which is what Ahab does not want to hear. 

Ahab does not want to face reality and would rather continue hiding behind justification of his title in class rank with no concrete sense of self. It can be questioned here then what does this white whale profit for him? Metaphorical “death” after killing the whale means the death of those fantasy feelings before brewing up the tale of Moby Dick for Ahab; and in this sense, he is no man, but a cowardly man hiding behind the preservation of class divide and title that only the social hierarchy gives him. To read the sun, the tool, the Parsee’s shock, and Stubb’s cards is to read the internal condition Ahab projects onto the rest of the ship. Stubb is not only a concerned mediator of the situation at hand, but he is also a concerned working class member that understands he, and the rest, would be directly affected by Ahab as we now read the Pequod as a social structure itself, led and dictated from Godly, un-God-like captain Ahab to the now evil, branded captain Ahab.  

Essay #2: Water, Our Mother

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Chapter 87 of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is an action-packed chapter in which the Pequod stumbles upon a vast pod of sperm whales. As the Pequod is dragged into the center of the pod, there is a break in the action: they are taken into a serene lake, and the crew pauses their whaling odyssey to take in the scenery and displays of nature. Pods of whales circle them as if they were in the eye of the storm; cows and calves greet them from the land; smaller whales swim close to the ship, allowing themselves to be pet by the crew, after which Ishmael writes:

“But far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and still stranger world met our eyes as we gazed over the side. For, suspended in those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing mothers of the whales, and those that by their enormous girth seemed shortly to become mothers … even so did the young of these whales seem looking up towards us, but not at us, as if we were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight. Floating on their sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us. (Melville 423-4)

Notably, Moby-Dick rarely features women throughout the novel, yet Melville makes no attempt to avoid discussing them. Instead, he incorporates them into the story through the use of motherly language, as shown in the passage above. Through his use of motherly imagery surrounding the lake in Chapter 87 of Moby-Dick, Melville connects humans and their origins with the water, portraying the sea as the mother of life both above and below. He argues that whales have evolved alongside human beings and are to be viewed as actual living beings rather than just commodities.

In the first sentence, Melville frames the terrestrial and the aquatic as two vastly different worlds, yet somehow very much alike. By juxtaposing the “wondrous world upon the surface” with the “still stranger world,” he establishes a connection between land and water, and humans with the sea (423). In the “wondrous,” terrestrial world, its air is what allows humans and air-breathing animals to thrive and explore it. As for the world beneath the watery surface, it houses many species of fish and other sea creatures, including whales. Unlike the terrestrial world, there is no air, which makes it difficult for humans and land animals to explore the deeper parts of it.

Despite its inaccessibility, Melville directs the readers’ attention “over the side” of the Pequod beneath the water’s surface, illustrating how this “still stranger world” below is not just tangible, but observable. It is tangible in that humans and other living creatures on land can interact with sea creatures just as they would with other beings that live on land, as demonstrated with the crew petting the whales near their ship (423). It is observable in that the water’s surface acts as a window to the underwater world, allowing the reader to see below the surface from above to watch the “nursing mothers of the whales” pass below the ship. Melville, then, shows that even though land and sea are different worlds with different compositions, they are both similar in that there is life above as well as below the surface.

As the crew “gaze[s] over the side” of the Pequod, the reader is drawn towards “the nursing mothers of the whales, and those that … seemed shortly to become mothers.” (423) Melville invokes the theme of motherhood through the metaphor he employs here, reinforcing the connection between human and sea. He describes the whale mothers as the “nursing mothers” of the sea, breastfeeding their newborns in their “watery vaults … to become mothers” in a similar vein to human mothers raising their young to become responsible adults. Melville places the human within the whale, giving them value as actual living beings trying to live their lives rather than as commodities for the whaling industry. He suggests that the whales (which Ishmael and the crew have been hunting) have lives that are just as valuable as a human’s life.

Melville continues the metaphor: “…even so did the young of these whales seem looking up towards us, but not at us, as if we were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight. Floating on their sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us.” (423-4) The imagery of the young whales looking towards the sailors is analogous to older generations looking at younger generations and watching them evolve while younger generations look up to their ancestors to try to be like them. In this case, the “young of these whales”–who stayed in the water for millions of years and did not evolve–are the older generation, and the humans–the ones who did evolve to live on land–are the newer generation.

By clarifying that the young whales were looking towards the sailors and not at them, “as if [they] were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight,” (423) Melville again gives the whales human-like qualities. The “new-born” whales are looking in the direction of the sailors, but they are unable to make out their human shapes, so they are only able to see the humans as another piece of seaweed. In human infants, their eyesight has not yet fully developed and it takes some time for their brains to fully process the environment throughout their first years. They are only able to see a few feet in front of them, perceiving humans and objects only as vague figures from afar, much like the “Gulfweed” the young whales perceive the sailors as. Like human children on land, It takes time for whale children to figure out their surroundings in the ocean and fully make out the shapes that are observing them.

This exchange between the two beings from two different worlds overall is symbolic of the interconnectedness between the humans and the whales. The “mothers”, nursing their children, “also seemed quietly eyeing [the sailors],” (424) which relates back to the scene’s interpretation as two generations looking after each other as previously mentioned. The use of the word “mother” implies that there have been countless generations of whales dating back hundreds, if not millions of years. These mother whales, and those that “seemed shortly to become mothers,” were quietly eyeing humans and other terrestrial beings evolving alongside them, producing offspring so that their generation could live on through them. And if we go back in time, it further implies that those who have evolved to survive on land came from their sea-born ancestors, who have always wondered what it was like outside the water.

This fleeting moment of calm in an otherwise action-filled chapter allows the reader to breathe, enabling them to see whales outside the context of the whaling industry. In the eye of the storm where there is calm, the captivating sight of the “serene lake” in which the Pequod finds herself in allows the crew to see the whales as who they really are: living beings passed through generation to generation, giving birth to soon-to-be mothers and fathers. Herman Melville reveals, in the Great Armada, that whales and humans have been watching over each other for many generations, and they have evolved in much the same way. And it all leads back to the Ocean herself: humans and whales birthed by the Ocean, the Ocean is our mother, and she is quietly eyeing us.

Essay #2: Shark Tank

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In chapter 64 of Moby Dick, titled “Stubb’s Supper”, the Pequod had just made their first whaling kill and were in the process of hulling in the exploits from their venture. During the transportation of these various items, Stubb specifically requests Daggo to cut a piece from the whale so he can cook a steak. As Stubb begins making his meal in the midst of night, thousands of sharks can be heard simultaneously attacking what remains of the whale below him in the water. 

In this scene, the sharks are purposefully in juxtaposition to Stubb to demonstrate how they are both participating in the same action for the same purpose—survival in their respective worlds. 

“About midnight that steak was cut and cooked; and lighted by two lanterns of sperm oil, Stubb stoutly stood up to his spermaceti supper at the capstan-head, as if that capstan were a sideboard. Nor was Stubb the only banqueter on whale’s flesh that night. Mingling their mumblings with his own mastication’s, thousands on thousands of sharks, swarming round the dead leviathan, smackingly feasted on its fatness.” (319). 

This scene is meant to symbolize the consumerist society they live in and what becomes necessary to survive in this capitalist system. In order to participate in this capitalist society, it becomes necessary for an individual in the workforce to become violent themselves in order to survive this type of system.

The whaling industry during this time period was very integrated into everyday society as indicated by the everyday items people were using and consuming. Even in this very scene, Stubb is only able to cook his food from the whale during midnight because he has light from “lanterns of sperm oil.” Although Stubb is the only living character, the whale’s presence dominates the atmosphere because of how integral and necessary it is in society and specifically to Stubb’s survival—as he is literally feeding off the whale. The whale becomes both sustenance of survival [food] and a commodity for consumer consumption [lantern oil].

 The importance of the whale cannot be overlooked in these scenes despite not even being alive anymore. The whale is instead transformed through acts of violence to become “useful” in our society—and there is no other way to procure these materials without the means of violence  

However, the way Stubb goes about preparing his meal isn’t particularly visualized as “violent” in the scene as to how it was portrayed in the previous chapter. Instead, the sharks are utilized in comparison to Stubb in order to visualize the violence behind this everyday act of simply preparing a meal. As Stubb feasts, the violence festers below him over the same exact thing in a much more cruder description. Depicting thousands of sharks and using descriptors such as “mastication” and “smackingly” to show the brutalization of the whale during this process and the sheer number of sharks that depend on this feast for their own survival.

 In comparison to a capitalist society, it can also represent the overwhelming number of people who depend on the whaling industry to provide for these commodities. Much like the sharks, a large number of people need the whaling industry, and depend on it to survive. It not only provides products, but also provides a job and purpose for an individual—if they can adapt to the violence necessary for such a task. 

Stubbs is the perfect character to display this adaptation because he operates on logic and knows what he needs to do to maintain his station. Although Stubbs isn’t actually feasting with the sharks, in a sense, the sharks and Stubbs are one in the same—the work force in their society, and much like in our capitalist society, the procurement of products and the consumption of exploits is built on a system of violent expenditures. This characterizes the capitalist whaling industry as an institution of violence. With the work force in the society adapting to be more like sharks in order to survive and thrive. 

However, that’s not to say that all sharks [workers] are created equal. For it’s not Stubb’s that procures the steak for his meal, but it’s his subordinate Daggo—and Stubb’s does not share with anyone. This solitary act of eating what others provide and reinforces the power-dynamics between characters and how violence and influence is seen as power. Stubb is not only representing the work-force at this moment but also the consumers who don’t realize the work of others to produce their items. The work behind the carnage is unseen–out of sight out of mind. However, the sharks bring that carnage back to the forefront. 

 In the previous chapter, the whalers crudely killed the whale, but this act was framed in the sense of accomplishment of their goals, rather than what it actually is—-the act of killing a living creature in order to benefit from what we can use from it. That’s why the scene depicting both Stubbs and the sharks acting in the same manner allows us to make these comparisons on our own volition.

 The sharks were acting erratically, manically tearing apart the beast—-but so were all the men in the previous chapter and the beginning of this chapter. Man and beast become one in the same through their mutual violent acts against the whale. The sharks become necessary to displaying the raw brutality in the act of a killing—regardless of the general motivation. The sharks did it to eat, the whalers did it because it’s their job and that’s what’s necessary in the society they live in. 

However, that begs the bigger question of if the means of procuring these items justifies the violence in their retrieval—-why is the violence necessary? 

This is because violence becomes necessary due to capitalism. The whalers live in a capitalist society that thrives for continuous economic growth and competitive markets, and as a result, they are pushed to be better than their competitors. For whoever has the most money in this society, holds the most power. This individualistic and competitive mindset are what leads to the pursuit of power through any means necessary and this typically manifests into a particular type of violence. In whaling, it has manifested in the overhunting of whales in the pursuit of profit and to just survive in general. Just like the sharks, many people are just trying to survive in the world that they live in. If violence becomes a means of survival, then we must be violent. This is what this scene depicts, how because of the capitalist society they live in, the work force has had to adapt to violence. For in order to survive in a cruel world, we must become violent—we must become sharks.

Essay #2

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Throughout the book, Melville tells and suggests that the reader stop and read closely what he is painting for us, how to read and make diligent study of the messages that hide in the lines of Melville’s work. “The slanting sun playing upon this crimson pond in the sea, sent back its reflection into every face, so that they all glowed to each other like red men… At last, gush after gush of clotted red gore, as if it had been the purple lees of red wine, shot into the frighted air; and falling back again, ran dripping down his motionless flanks into the sea. His heart had burst!” (Melville 311). The word reflection is strong in this passage; to read and reflect on what you’re reading, in a sense, we are glowing red in the reflection on these men. We should be reflecting on how the dirty work of whaling is an overlooked aspect of American history,  especially to the people on land. Whaling is a bloody battlefield that can’t be overlooked by the men on the boat, but is by the people on the land. Melville is making a clear critique of the land-based reader for their ignorance by giving them a glorious description of the exploitative practices carried out on the boat to produce the civilized lifestyle on land. Melville teaches readers how these civilized goods are produced, such as electricity, a bone corset, and perfume. Ignorance is bliss to the land-based reader, out of sight, out of mind, but in this case, the details are never in mind when it comes to our land people. 

Reflection is what Melville suggests the reader do: open this book and read these glorious details about whaling and how it’s done. Ignorance is bliss; that’s something Americans are being criticized for, wanting the benefits of whaling, which is the oil, the bone, and the ambergris, which provides Americans with electricity and perfume. The part of which they’re choosing ignorance is not knowing where they got their electricity and perfume from; it comes from the whale, and they don’t know where or how. “The slanting sun playing upon this crimson pond in the sea, sent back its reflection into every face, so that they all glowed to each other like red men.” (Melville 311). Glowing to each other, they all glowed together; their act of killing reflects blood rather than the actual blood spread out. Melville is pushing us to read the blood on the pages and reflect, and put the land-based reader up for critique for their greed, their greed to send men out to sea to bring back oil for their pleasure.  Melville is pushing the reader to read this passage and critique the land-based reader. To bring back what I said, we are glowing red in the reflection of these men, watching them in their glorious act. Also, to mention “that they all glowed to each other like red men.” (Melville 311), they glowed to each other like red men; the blood isn’t what is making the men red, it’s the actions of the men that make them all glow red.

“At last, gush after gush of clotted red gore, as if it had been the purple lees of red wine” (311 Melville).  This line in the passage alone shows us how Melville is showing the two different sides of the people on the sea vs the land, the men who are on the sea killing whales have seen and get caught in the red gore and gushing blood clots, while the people on land drink red wine and wait for the whale oil to come to land so they can live like civilized people. The upper class drinks red wine while the people on the boat have to do the bloody work; that’s their red wine, blood, and clots. The land-based reader sits back and drinks their wine, while the men on the boat are murdering whales for a living, so the land people can live in such luxury. This passage is stating the two differences in ocean and land readers, one strikes blood that resembles red wine, while one is drinking the blood that has been struck. I want to dive into not only how it states the two but how it’s displayed as two. “gush after gush of clotted red gore,” and as if it had been the purple lees of red wine” (Melville 311). The use of the comma is what displays the marking of the difference between the land and ocean people. On one side, we have the glory and the blood, while on the other side, we have the red wine. What’s happening in the ocean vs what’s being brought back to the land? 

The glorious detail of the whale’s killing is important to read, and Melville is pushing the reader to understand its significance. Whaling isn’t natural, but what comes from the whale is their blood, their blubber, and ambergris, which is natural. When talking about the land-based reader, we are talking about most readers of “Moby Dick”. The idea of whaling may be simple, but when it comes to the details of watching this beauteous creature die in glory to provide the land with such materials to live a luxurious life is far overlooked in American history. It’s a brutal battlefield against man and whale, where the whale doesn’t really stand a chance. Montinless to most whales, it’s murder to whales for their goods. Melville wants the reader to understand man vs whale, what man does to the whale. “shot into the frighted air; and falling back again, ran dripping down his motionless flanks into the sea. His heart had burst!” (311 Melville). Watching the heart burst like it’s nothing but material goods, the whale’s heart belongs in the ocean. It starts in the ocean and ends in the ocean. Glore is motionless to the land reader; you don’t hear or see the blood, you sit and drink your red wine.