Category Archives: Week 11: Chapters 87-108

Week 11: A bright Black

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Written at a time where American slavery is at its heyday, it should be no surprise that we continue to see themes of race in Chapter 93 of Moby-Dick. In the third paragraph of the chapter, we see Melville compare Pip and Dough-Boy to black and white ponies “of equal developments” respectively, but he continues to extend the metaphor onto Pip but not Dough-Boy. Why is that?

“Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe … I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king’s cabinets. But Pip loved life, and all life’s peaceable securities; so that the panic-striking business in which he had somehow unaccountably become entrapped, had most sadly blurred his brightness…” (Melville 450-451)

Melville continues to bring special attention to the Black figure in this passage, speaking of their “brilliancy” and “lustrous ebony” as a reminder that Black people are human beings. They are subject to the hardships of capitalism as white people, but since this is the 1850s, they suffer a disproportionate amount with white people being a contributing factor to their suffering. Not even free Black people were safe, since they were not considered citizens of the United States at the time and therefore were not given constitutional protections or rights, even more so in capitalism.

Melville also highlights the unhappiness of Black workers after they are assimilated into a capitalist society. Pip comes from a tribe whose culture gives him a “pleasant, genial, jolly brightness,” but the “panic-striking business” in which he was “entrapped” had blurred that “brightness.” Melville’s repetition of “brightness” here demonstrates how assimilating into a new culture and letting go of old ways can actually lead to one being worse off. Ironically, despite Pip living a happy life in his tribe, with “finer, freer relish than any other race,” he sought off work in the United States because he thought he would be happier if he had more. In a Fast-Fish/Loose-Fish society, where the only way to be successful is by “having more” of something, does it really make you happy in the end? Or does it snuff out the “brightness” you once had and lead you onto a path of darkness?

incorruption found within the heart of decay

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There were a number of parts from this most recent reading that struck me – I wondered if, perhaps, Pippin from Lord of the Rings was partially named for Pippin in Moby Dick. Both are known to be young, somewhat fearful, and thrust into a dangerous voyage that they may not have necessarily signed on for. They are also particularly clumsy, eliciting anger and frustration from their superiors.

Yet the part that interested me from an academic standpoint was Chapter 92, Ambergris. “Now that the incorruption of this most fragrant ambergris should be found in the heart of such decay; is this nothing?” (448) This passage, while referencing the thick, waxy stuff found within decaying whales, can apply too to the story of Moby Dick and the characters within it. The procurement of the Ambergris was duplicitous, the urgency from Ahab to continue forward on their journey despite the valuable find was further proof of his abandonment of their financial goals for this trip. Despite the harrowing nature of the journey, despite the questionable nature of Ahab and the cruelty expressed by crewmen such as Stubb, Ishmael and Queequeg are the ambergris of the ship – the incorruptible pieces found within the heart of decay.

As another aside, I have been listening to this https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=aNpA6yRene0&si=q_8oCmRmJK9RLytG while reading the novel and have found it to properly put me into the mindset of being on the Pequod. I wanted to share it for the others that may need to listen to something while they read.

Week 11 : Chapters 91 – 108

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As I am starting to get into the chunk of reading for this week, something stuck out to me pretty early on in the section. On the first page of chapter 92, Ambergris, Melville through the voice of Ishmael says “Who would think, then, that such fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale! Yet so it is.”

What I think really stuck out about this quote to me is how representative of the entire novel it is. So often, Melville and Ishmael remind the readers about how common whaling is at the time and how essential it was to the economy. Everything ran on whale power and this quote just emphasizes truly how common goods from the whales were in daily lives. The reminder of how, while whaling may seem unethical and gross to us now, that wasn’t always the case. People like us reading this novel were some of the main consumers of these goods that the whaling boats brought back and Melville really does try to bring to the forefront just how much of a commonality this was.

I think this also ties so much into the historical period in which this was written and how we look back upon it. We know that Melville is using the whale as a symbol and I think this quote and this constant reminder of how common something can be at one point and then be completely looked down upon could also represent the culture around slavery. We now of course know truly how awful slavery was even as an idea, but back then it was such a common thing. It can sometimes be hard to imagine these historical figures being proponents of these awful actions, but in reality this was what was common and known at the time. Just like how it’s hard for us to imagine people consuming products from whales. I think Melville does a brilliant job bringing the reader back to reality when reading this book, both through the historical aspect of it, but also through direct speech to the reader. Sometimes reading this book makes you feel like you are in a completely fictionalized world because of how outlandish it may seem to us now, but it is important for us to remember how truly real these situations were, both historical symbolism and true whaling descriptions alike.

What a trip (literally) – Chapter 93

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This chapter is where I’m starting to get a bit more juice into focusing on the novel again. But also, poor Pip man. He’s really struggling to pull his weight in this chapter, but it also becomes clear that the racial dynamics on the ship are painfully obvious. As a young Black man who has trouble pulling his weight around, it is very easy to be accosted, as is described in the chapter after the first time he jumps off of the boat. We eventually get a scenario in which he jumps off again, and Stubb strands him (not purposefully) thinking the other whale boats would get Pip. That doesn’t end up being the case, and we get this bit of introspection as Ishmael describes Pip’s experience on the open sea.

“The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of unwarped primal world glided to and fro and before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps…Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs.” (453)

This line specifically speaks about how jarring the ocean itself is. It’s this powerhouse of feeling that stirs both the ship and the souls aboard it, but ultimately Pip experiences it first hand in the midst of being stranded. “Multitudinous,” “God-omnipresent,” “Wondrous,” “Strange,” the sea itself is a vast thing that is describe by many words, both good and bad respectively, but Pip has a bit of a revelation here to the world below, one relatively unexplored by humans thanks to the confines of the 1800s. Melville makes a point to compared the ocean itself to something God-like because of this unknowingness. At least at the time, we can’t fully speak it like God’s name, and we can’t fully fathom what lurks below either. Pip’s soul actively drowning shows the draining quality of sea-life aboard the Pequod (and other ships given this perspective), yet the drowning also reveals that both the soul and the ocean itself is infinite. Infinitely unexplored, infinitely untapped, carried to “wondrous depths” that ultimately serve to show that human nature is limited in the eyes of God.

Chapter 93: The Castaway

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I got hooked while reading this chapter because this is one of the most realistic chapters that I have ever seen so far. You might be wondering: “Why is it realistic?” I would say that it is because humans were born with a desire for something that they longed for a period of time, or rather, I would say, we were born with greed in our minds, at least for once in our lifetime. In this case, for Stubb, it’s the riches that he has always been after. There is a passage where they display Stubb’s true desire, where he said: “Stick to the boat, Pip, or by the Lord, I won’t pick you up 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 anymore. 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). Why does this matter, you might ask. It matters because at the end of the day, there is something that we are always after, there is something that we keep in our minds at night to remind ourselves why we are pursuing our goals, for what purpose we are pursuing this. When it comes to Stubb, he loves his fellow man, Pip, for sure, but if he were to be given a chance to save Pip or the whale, what would he choose? I think you already know the answer. The whale makes a profit because it is considered to be the creature of the sea; it makes a profit because of the oil that humans want to exploit for their own benefits. Stubb is inherently blinded by riches that Melville considers a ‘money-making animal’ because he has already set his mind on the money, and nothing could change that. Stubb is like an animal with no thoughts when it comes to money; it is the only thing that is keeping him going, and it is the only thing that he desires. Also, when Stubb said, “By the likes of you”, there is a sense of arrogance coming from his side. It is the utter annoyance that Stubb is expressing here, and I wondered if we’ll get to see more of his side later on.

“Oh! the metempsychosis!”

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We’ve been talking a lot about noticing the moments when Moby Dick puts us to sleep and then pulls us out of that boredom and trying to discover why is it that the book is formed this way. I think the end of Chapter 98 gives us one possible answer to this:

“Yet this is life. For hardly have we mortals by long toilings extracted from this world’s vast bulk its small but valuable sperm; and then, with weary patience, cleansed ourselves from its defilements, and learned to live here in clean tabernacles of the soul; hardly is this done, when–There she blows!–the ghost is spouted up, and away we sail to fight some other world, and go through young life’s old routine again” (469).

The constant jump from pillaging one captured and slain whale to immediately hunting another is representative of the flow of life as a whole. We hardly have time to fully invest ourselves into extracting the small but valuable sperm from this world’s vast bulk when another call prevents us from even fully cleansing ourselves of the task at hand. It’s nearly impossible now for us to just sit and digest something without the endless media and entertainment fighting for our attention. So to see Melville talk about this constant distraction in 1850s America, it’s clear that its not just the modern day technology that keeps us from ever giving our full attention to something, but it’s often the case that the people ordering us expect us to swiftly wrap up our business with one whale to plunder the next profitable goal. Constantly put through this metempsychosis (transmigration of the soul after death, reincarnation basically), going through young life’s old routine again and again, to extract the resources and discard the source.

The Price of Illumination – Chapter 97

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The line from this week’s reading that really caught my eye was from Chapter 97: “But the whaleman, as he seeks the food of light, so he lives in light” (Melville 466), which I believe captures Melville’s ability to fuse the physical and the metaphysical once again, turning a practical observation about whaling into a profound commentary on human existence. On a literal level, the statement refers to the whaleman’s constant pursuit of oil, the “food of light,” since whale oil was used to fuel lamps across the world. So, the whaleman’s work is a pursuit of and for illumination. He literally hunts the source of light that allows civilization to see, work, and exist after dark. But Melville complicates this material truth by framing it in spiritual and moral terms. The phrase “lives in light” suggests that the whaleman not only produces light but is also surrounded by it at all times, bathed in its glow both literally and figuratively. Yet this very illumination of theirs is born out of darkness: the death of innocent whales, the blood and toil of the men who harvest their bodies, and the moral and ethical ambiguity of a profession that profits from chaos and destruction.

I think that the irony here is central and clear to see: the whaleman “lives in light,” but only through an act of violence. The same substance that brings clarity and brightness to the rest of the world originates in death. Melville uses this paradox to suggest that enlightenment, both scientific and spiritual, often comes at a cost. Stepping back, in a broader sense, I think that the “whaleman” becomes a metaphor for humankind’s ceaseless desire for knowledge and progress. Just as the whaleman harvests the “food of light,” humans pursue wisdom, truth, and power, but unfortunately, these pursuits are frequently built upon exploitation, conquest, and moral compromise. To “live in light,” then, may also mean to live in the illusion of purity, ignoring the shadow that makes such light bright and possible.

This idea connects to Melville’s recurring interest in the boundaries between illumination and blindness, understanding and ignorance. The whaleman’s world is one where enlightenment is always haunted by darkness because every lamp that burns brightly depends on the extinguishing of life. Through this single sentence, I believe that Melville encapsulates the novel’s philosophical core: that light and darkness are inseparable, that human knowledge is born from destruction, and that to “live in light” is to live within and also understand the moral contradictions that define civilization itself.

But what do I know?

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In Chapter 100 ‘Leg and Arm’, a juxtaposition is made between Ahab’s whale versus another ship’s version, “So what you take for the White Whale’s malice is only his awkwardness.” Ahab’s knowledge of the whale is isolated, purposefully, so that no other explanation can penetrate his mind about the creature. In posing the whale as a being without a grand plan, Melville rewrites this entire story in just a sentence, the whale becoming a victim of circumstance rather than a violent perpetrator. Melville also uses Ahab’s intentional ignorance to emphasize the multifaceted nature of knowledge, exemplifying his failure to understand the whale as a complicated creature instead of a monster. 

When the whale’s ‘malice’ is exchanged for ‘awkwardness’, this prompts images of innocence and inexperience. The whale is not by nature violent, but when attacked it is forced to defend itself by means outside of its nature, its violence is unnatural and awkward. In rewriting the whale as a docile being, biting Ahab’s leg to save its own life, the whale is able to exist as multiple things, violent and awkward. Ahab does not want to actually know the whale, he has already written his narrative and has his perfect ending for it. Knowledge requires the will to be proven wrong, something Ahab refuses to do, resulting in his struggle against a villain that doesn’t exist. This struggle puts not only himself, but also those around him in danger for a vain pursuit. In just a sentence, Melville offers much on the way we see the world, and the choice we have in this perspective, its consequences affecting more than our own selves. 

Oversight of the Oppressed

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In 1850 the northern states were opposed to slavery, but The Fugitive Slave Act effectively drug the north into slavery’s messy affair. They could no longer turn a blind eye. Melville clearly comments on the unjust process that the act enforces in chapter 89 of Moby Dick: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish. This chapter seems to aim at southerners, ridiculing their conception of property. He calls for the transfer of the uncontentious laws of the sea to become a law of the land. But Melville pushes his inquisition towards the entirety of the country in Chapter 92. For even if northerners abhorred the idea of slavery they still tended to hold racial prejudice. Melville criticizes ingrained racism when he addresses the smell of whales: “They hint that all whales always smell bad. Now how did this odious stigma originate?” (448) In his explanation of the origination of a stigma Melville confronts all of his readers to rethink their indoctrinated beliefs. By turning the lens of criticism from southern readers to the whole of the United States, Melville forces his readers, as much as the Fugitive Slave Act does, to acknowledge that they are part of the problem. He affirms that accepting stigma as fact when stemming from a societal lens most likely comes from one isolated incident, or from a bygone civilization. And the reader’s participation in racial stigma is participation in slavery. Melville attempts to reason with all of America by introducing the notion that all men, like whales, “that living or dead, if but decently treated, whales as a species are by no means creatures of ill odor” (449).

What is significant about this contention is the chapter that follows it, The Castaway, continues to chronicle the north’s participation in the slave industry. Stubb “hints” to the reader when he warns Pip of his potential life at sea: “man loves his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.” (452). Melville replicates the United States. Deserting their fellow man to live by the exploits of slavery is Stubb’s boat leaving Pip to die, or worse, go mad at sea while chasing the bankroll of the whale. America’s capitalistic society fuels the intentional oversight of the oppressed.

Chapter 93- What is More Valuable: The Child or The Whale?

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As I was reading through chapter 93, I found more of Stubb’s character and drive for his hunt for these whales as he was dealing with the adolescent young Pip. This might have been what a sailor might do in the persuit of hunting a whale but it really shows how Stubb values money over a human life. What is more valuable to a sailor, one of their shipmates lives or the profit they can recieve for their hunting of these ocean beasts?

” “Stick to the boat, Pip, or by the Lord, I won’t pick you up if you jump; mind that. We can’t afford to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would sell for 30 times what you would, Pip, in Alabama. Bear that in mind, and don’t jump anymore.” 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.”

These whales are the motives for these sailors as they are in hot persuit of them across the oceans. They want to catch as many as they can so their profit can be large. This means they can’t afford to go back for anything, even a human who was aboard their ship. Pip had fallen overboard after getting tangled in the line which the whale was pulling which was cut so he could be let free so he wouldn’t drown. That act showed that Stubb does have some ounce of care in his heart but him saying that “I won’t pick you up if you jump” then comparing the price of him to the whale was a very interesting comparison. Stubb saying what he does shows his true colors as he is money driven to hunt the whales. He is alluding to selling Pip into slavery as he mentioned Alabama which was a slave state at the time of Melville writing this book. “We can’t afford to lose whales by the likes of you,” shows that Stubb values the money a whale could get him even if his shipmates that he loves lives or dies.

Stubb’s philosphy is to always continue the hunt no matter what which shows how hyperfixated he is on this persuit of hunting down and killing these whales for the profit he can gain. Pip wouldn’t have survived if Stubb did not stop his persuit of the whale and pull him back aboard the boat saving his life.