In Chapter 35, “The Mast-Head,” Ishmael reflects on the uncanny stillness and spiritual isolation that comes from the high above the ship as a whale lookout. He starts turn the tone very philosophical and more about the consciousness of the human mind. In the quote, “but lulled into such such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thought, that at last he loses his identity…” (172) , he’s describing on how the watcher drifts away from its own consciousness and starts to separate from himself, basically losing his identity. Melville starts to use poetic imagery and philosophical views for us to see on how isolation can mirror the human struggle of awareness and illusions. It demonstrates on how Ishmael’s calm yet warning tone can see the meaning of searching for whales, but how it can lead to excellence or destruction.
It’s scary on how it can be easy to disconnect yourself and others in moments where you start feeling vulnerable. I’ve felt like when life starts getting hard and so my mind starts to wonder off to those thoughts, but then I start to reflect on the positives in order for me to seek the good things I have encountered in my life.
I also resonated with this chapter because dissociation was such a very surreal thing to even put into words, and I think Melville does so clearly, especially in making a powerful statement about how he personally feels how human labor and isolation has pushed us as human beings past our bounds. There were many lines that were significant in the poem, but I really liked the quote you took from the passage. He mixes real life tangibility, the waves during the mast head, and then internal feeling of “childlike, absent reverie”, which I think plays so well into stepping out of society and looking at it through an outside perspective as Ishmael realizes how much the greed of getting the whale makes him animalistic and crazed. I actually didn’t think of it like that, but thank you for sharing !
I think the philosophical aspect was something I hadn’t necessarily focused on. Ishmael describes just how easily it can be for sailors to be affected by the job, and while it isn’t necessarily boredom that takes them, it’s a tranquil nothingness that allows them to do their job up on the Mast-Head. I had initially focused on the positionality of Ishmael on the mast in this chapter, but its worth nothing that there’s something more than being high up and looking in the waves absent. He’s actively doing a job that procures nothing until he spots a whale, and the excellence or destruction that they head right towards really puts into perspective just how important behind on the mast-head is. You have to have a vision, not just for whales, but for ensuring that everyone else gets the memo before you fall to certain doom if you’re careless.
Hey Darian, I enjoyed reading your post. I thought that this chapter was great, it demonstrated how the ocean has a way of separating ourselves from our own personal identities. I think this chapter also showed how people can find peace while out at sea, “a sublime eventfulness.” To get away from all the troubles on land, Ishmael uses the sea as an escape, and doesn’t worry himself about money or news or any issues back home. This chapter gives us insight into peacefulness that is found within the ocean, it’s not like anything on land, there’s nothing besides the ship on the open water. It is at sea where Ishmael can finally find his identity and be at peace.