I am nervous about it, but I am going to write Pip into The Deep by Rivers Solomon. I believe that Melville purposefully delivered Pip to his ancestors. I can’t stop thinking about the intersection of Pip’s soul lost to the Antilles and the mermaids from the Middle Passage.
Thesis:
In Chapter 110 of Moby Dick, while Queequeg is laying in his coffin preparing for death, Pip asks a favor of him. “Seek out one Pip, who’s now been missing long: I think he’s in those far Antilles.” (522) By conveying Pip to the Antilles, Melville delivers him to his ancestors. This delivery directs focus to the savage, immoral foundations of America. This subtle critique not only assesses Christianity and capitalism, but delivering Pip to the Middle Passage critiques the values of ‘civility’ compared to so called savagery. Melville indicates that there is no such thing as civility, only justified savagery.
I like this idea very much. I just want you to refine what you mean here: “but delivering Pip to the Middle Passage critiques the values of ‘civility’ compared to so called savagery. Melville indicates that there is no such thing as civility, only justified savagery.”
First, how are you “delivering Pip to the Middle Passage”? What do you mean by that phrase?
Second, isn’t civilization just an effort not to live as savages? So what does “there is no such thing as civility, only justified savagery” really mean? Does the novel, and your project about it, show that civilization is useless or that the oppositions between civilization and savagery are arbitrary, or?? I am not sure that I see a clear claim upon which to build 2 class projects.
I wonder if you can think more about the connection between Pip and The Deep– what, where, why that connection? Tease it out more so that you really know where and how to develop your claim.
Keep going! This is promising, indeed!