To scorn the earth

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In Chapter 13, Ishmael finally boards a watercraft, a little ferry (the Moss) that will take him and Queequeg to Nantucket. It’s interesting that this is the first direct contact with the water that he’s had since the story started, given that he’s spent so much time thinking about it. Another example of this novel refusing to begin. The moment finally comes on page 66, when they start sailing down the Acushnet river. Ishmael muses, “Gaining the more open water, the bracing breeze waxed fresh; the little Moss tossed the quick foam from her bows, as a young colt his snortings. How I snuffed that Tartar air!–how I spurned that turnpike earth!–that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish heels and hoofs; and turned me to admire the magnanimity of the sea which will permit no records” (66). Just as he said at the beginning of the story, the ocean makes him feel better; it’s his way to cope with life. He looks back at land and he compares it to a hell of sorts, a highway pockmarked with “slavish heels and hoofs.” He relishes the openness and the fluidity of the water, “which will permit no records.” He feels free, untethered. But at what cost? Melville juxtaposes the earth with the sea and gives that idea to us through Ishmael’s perspective–a white male in 19th century America. Melville intentionally uses the phrase “slavish heels and hoofs” to refer to the marks Ishmael sees on the side of the river. The word “slavish” could simply refer to the monotonous and restraining lives of most people on land, people who prefer stability over adventure; but further, I see this is a clear reference to the reality that was slavery in America, which was coming to its boiling point at the time, and was something that Ishmael would not have been negatively affected by. In fact, he would have benefitted from it, even if indirectly. For Ishmael, it is easy to scorn the Earth and prefer the ocean over it because he has that luxury. He feels the wind in his hair and mighty freedom surges in his heart as he sails through the water, but the earth does not forget. Ishmael hates to feel tied town and chained to his unfulfilling life, but he fails to recognize there are others who are legally considered subhuman and have no choice but to live in chains. The magnanimous sea “will permit no records,” and for someone like Ishmael it is easier and more convenient to turn away from the marks of injustice that lie upon the earth.

Week 7: Chapter 24

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In Chapter 24, “The Advocate”, Ishmael narrates by defending the honor and dignity of whaling and argues that they deserve more respect from society ideals and see whaling as heroic . When Melville writes, “The dignity of our calling the very heavens attest. Cetus is a constellation of the South!” (122), he uses this imagery for us to see on how the whale and the people who hunt it hold like a cosmic/ divine importance. The whale isn’t just an animal, but as something powerful and important. The whales, in many cultures, often seen as divine, sacred and spiritual beings, and symbolized as creation, wisdom and strength. Melville is indicating that honor can exist in difficult, physical labor, and not just by high societal nobles, but as heroic, ” I account that man more honorable than that great captain of antiquity who boasted of taking as many walled towns,”(122). I believe Melville wants the readers (us) to see manual labor with admiration and respect and not seen as a societal norm. I feel that Melville wants for us to see the concepts on how America wanted to be demonstrated as a country with being defined as class and greatness.

So far this chapter was my favorite. Not going to lie, but the book was making me mad and confused all day after re-reading every sentences with the whole different dialect of old English.

Elijah and the Prophecy

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Prior to setting off on his 3 year long voyage, Ishmael is tasked with the important decision of choosing between the three whaling ships docked in Nantucket. His decision to choose the Pequod, is entirely based on his admiration and romanticized notions of the whaling ship which he describes as: “a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies(78).”

After having gotten to know Ishmael in the past 16-19 chapters, it is no surprise that he is inclined to court death, evidenced by the quick friendship he began with the intimidating Queequeg. However, he seems determined to board the ship despite any protest or challenge, even after the prophetic and ominous warnings by Elijah, who equates signing onto the ship as signing away your soul. Elijah seems to know more than anyone is capable of divulging about Captain Ahab, but does not go into depth: 

“But nothing about that thing that happened to him off Cape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights; nothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa?—heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver calabash he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage, according to the prophecy. Didn’t ye hear a word about them matters and something more, eh?(101)”

His name, based on the biblical reference to the prophet Elijah and King Ahab, is either an attempt to scare Ishmael, or his way of hinting that this prophecy (of biblical scale), which even Captain Peleg seems forbidden to mention in Ahab’s presence, is already on its path of being concluded. It seems even captain peleg is incapable of forming a concrete opinion on Captain Ahab who is both “a grand, ungodly, godlike man(88),” as well as “a good man– not a pious, good man, like Bildad, but a swearing good man–(89).” I wouldn’t say that the chances of this voyage ending on a good note are high for Ishmael and Queequeg, but I would say, based on Elijah’s warnings that they are inevitable or otherwise fated.

There is a certain quality to these chapters, that make everything feel like it’s clicking into place, not in the usual narrative sense, but like seeing a prophecy play out. Ishmael decides almost at once to join the Pequod based on a feeling of rightness, and even Elijah tells him “you are just the man for him– the likes of ye. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning! Oh! When ye get there, tell’em i’ve concluded not to make myself one of ‘em.” I take this to mean that in Elijah’s journey, he has decided, upon meeting Ishmael, to resist the magnetic pull of the Pequod and of the infamous Captain Ahab. It seems, unfortunately, that Elijah has bequeathed this burden of knowing to Ishmael. Only time and the progression of reading this book will tell us if this is true.

Chapter 16- The Ship and Human Ambition

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The following quote stood out to me this week. It is describing the Pequod, as Ishmael sees it for the first time. “A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.” This quote stood out to me in particular because of it’s contrast, essentially using antonyms to describe the Pequod. It ultimately reflects one of the many themes reflected within the novel about human ambition.

Our ambition, or drive to do something noble, is completely inseparable from the melancholy. Striving for greatness always involves sacrifice, isolation, or the awareness of our own limits. For example, on a whaling ship sailors were stuck with the same group of men for months and months at a time – a great sacrifice for the adventure and supposed riches that awaited them upon their arrival back home. Glory and riches are “noble”. But doing the same thing, day after day, with the same people, only occasionally being interrupted is melancholy. In a way, the ship being both noble and melancholy represents what life looks like on it. Great in the eyes of society and the sailors themselves, but rather tedious most days.

Because ultimately to achieve greatness, we often must first make habits. Building a habit is melancholy and tedious, at times. But in order to achieve our goals, whether big or small, we must have them.Also, a lot of time, we, as humans, do not know our own limits. For instance, Ahab has worked so hard in this industry that he lost a leg, and potentially his sanity, as he constantly obsesses over killing the “white whale”.

Long story short, like the ship itself, the sailor’s within embody the paradox of human ambition: the idea that our pursuit of something grand and meaningful is always accompanied by struggle, weariness, loss, and a million other sacrifices.

Queequeg: The Hero

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Very much like previous chapters, Ishmael continues to point out/ describe Queequegs’ savage like tendencies and/ or features in Chapter 13. Pointing out things like “…he showed his filed and pointed teeth.” (P. 66), “… the brawny savage..”(p.66), and “…seen swimming like a dog…”(p.67) Even the young man who made fun of Queequeg behind his back called him “..the devil..”(p.67) after being picked up and thrown up by the devil himself. Melville continues to write about Queequeg in this manner to keep his savage momentum going, to paint a picture of what this man looks like and what he seems to be as a person, just to reveal the kind of man he ACTUAlLLY is—beyond what is written to describe him.

For example, after had been insulted by that young man and by the captain, Queequeg is quick to save not only the boat but the young man as well after being thrown off the boat. Just after his grand gesture, he is thanked and praised for saving the day and now Queequeg is a hero. When a few minutes ago he was a devil and a cannibal who was threatened to be killed. If he were to be as malicious as he was labeled, wouldn’t he have done absolutely nothing to save that man? Melville uses this moment to guide us into understanding the difference between believing what others might say about someone vs who that person is and the kind of morals they stand for even if it does not equate to the label they carry.

While what he did gained the respect and kindness from the others on the boat, Queequeg did not seem to care for their praise as Ishmael says he, “…only asked for water—fresh water— something to wipe the brine off; that done, he put on dry clothes, lighted his pipe…” (p. 68) Queequegs request followed by his thought that “We cannibals must help these Christians.” (P.68) Concluding that the division between the kind of person you are does not reflect what he is labeled as. For Queequeg, he sees Christians as helpless— needing the support of savages like him regardless if they are aware of it or if they want it whereas Christians most likely see people like Queequeg as dangerous and the opposite of who they would consider as helpful. When in a boat full of people, who may or may not have been Christians, the only person to jump to save the young man was a cannibal.

The Innocent Nature of the Whale 

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One of the most interesting aspects of this book is the ever changing relationship between man and the whale. In my last post, I discussed Queequeg as being symbolic of the whale because of how he’s described with animalistic qualities. However, this statement goes both ways, meaning that the whale has humanistic qualities. It’s hard to hate something for simply being, especially if there is an innate relatability, connection, or understanding towards the creature. So far in the narrative, the whale has been depicted as a fearsome foe, a monstrous beast, but in the later chapters, this notion is challenged. Instead of viewing the whale as a malicious beast, the main character calls to question the innocent nature of the animal. This point is emphasis when he is talking to the ship’s captain, who retells the story of how he lost his leg, and in response he says;

“What you say is no doubt true enough sir; but how could I know there was any peculiar ferocity in that particular whale, though indeed I might have inferred as much from the simple fact of the accident” (80).  

 This vocalized plea of the whale’s innocence shifts the whale’s actions from being the perpetrator of evil to a victim of self-defense against capitalistic ventures. The whale did not attack without provocation, it was being hunted by whalers and responded accordingly to its survival. It’s in all our nature to have self-preservation. By having Ishmeal point this out to the captain shows that he doesn’t share these same opinions about the whale. He is recognizing that this is a living being, much like himself. Ishmeal’s ability to empathize with the whale humanizes the creature. Expanding our precious preconceived notions about the whale. Whereas in the previous chapters he’s a leviathan, in this particular moment, the whale is just an innocent animal trying to survive.

The Ramadan

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Throughout our readings so far we have witnessed a relationship build between Ishmael and Queequeg. As they grow closer Ishmael accepts Queequeg for who he is and even starts thinking of Christianity through a new lens. However, in chapter 17 Queequeg is participating in Ramadan, he sits in the middle of the room holding Yojo on top of his head all day until sunrise the next morning. Ishmael tries to get him to stand, eat, and sleep but none of those things are important to Queequeg because he is practicing his religion. This is when we see Ishmael take a step back from his accepting behavior and begin to feel as though he must save Queequeg, “I have no objection to any person’s religion…But when a man’s religion becomes really frantic;… then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him” (94). The inclusion of this chapter by Melville is extremely important as a way of demonstrating the truth behind the thought process of people during this time. Christianity was not seen only as a religion, but rather as almost a fact and universal truth. The showing of pure hypocrisy during this passage was definitely a smart choice by Melville. The passage starting off with Ishmael saying he does not judge but then he goes straight into judging was possibly a way for Melville to show him as an unreliable narrator at times? To Ishmael, his thought process makes complete sense, but to readers his ideas being completely hypocritical is obvious. 

Ishmael even decides he must have a conversation with Queequeg simply because he believed it was, “bad for health;useless for the soul” (94). This again demonstrates how much any religion that was not christianity was seen as completely far fetched and ridiculous. Ishmael feels like he needs to teach Queequeg and explain religion to him, when Queequeg has his own beliefs and has not tried to force them onto Ishmael. Melville is asking readers to have an open mind and realize that just because someone has different beliefs does not mean they are wrong or ridiculous for their way of living. 

Another quote from these pages that stuck out to me was, “he no doubt thought he knew a good deal more about the true religion than I did” (95). This part of the passage definitely supports everything that I have noted earlier in this blog. However, it also got me thinking about everything Melville could be using this passage to convey to readers. One thing that came to mind is that he might be showing that change isn’t linear. Ishmael’s ideas about religion are not just his own, the majority of the people during this time thought this way as well. Maybe this is a way for Melville to show that changing those ideas takes time and true effort? This is something I found extremely interesting and I will keep this idea in mind as we read more of the novel.

Week 7: Chapter 14 – Nantucket

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This chapter struck my interest because Ishmael asks us, the reader, to pay attention to the history that has formed the island of Nantucket. “Look now,” he says, “ at the wondrous traditional story of how this island was settled by the red men.” (Pg 69) Like the earlier chapter, Melville keeps reminding us that there is a history here that far surpasses the establishment of the American nation. I find these constant reminders interesting because some of the earlier literature regarding the colonizing of the new world would have the reader believe that the land that settlers “discovered” was untouched and not being put to any kind of use. Melville constantly endeavors to remind us that it has been inhabited for hundreds of years. So much so that the native people have legends to explain how they came to discover the island of Nantucket. He further confirms the claim of the people of the island, not just to the land but to the sea itself. “They first caught crabs quohogs in the sand; grown bolder, they waded out with nets for mackerel; more experienced, they pushed of in boats and captured cod; and at last, launching a navy of great ships on the sea, explored this watery world; …”(pg 70). I bring attention to this quote because this description almost seems to describe a reverse evolution that slowly takes the locals of the island back to the sea as they adapt to survive it. Melville makes it clear that for a long time, the people of this island have become masters of the sea through their historical acquaintance with it. He likens it much to other historically distinguished empires like the roman empire. Considering how in his essay, The American Scholar, Emerson calls on scholars to stop looking towards Europe for inspiration, Melville seems to respond to this by making it clear that if we must look to the past, let us look to the past of this land and the past of the people that have long inhabited this land, for they were as great a people as those from across the ocean.

Week 7: Ishmael’s accounts as a victim under capitalism

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In chapter 25, Ishmael sounds like he has had enough with how people view workers in the whale industry. By using analogy of whalers as significant roles that generate society, he also gets caught up in not seeing how he unintentionally sabotages their role by indirectly subjecting their role for the sole lives of the upper class. He states that, “It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even modern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their functions is gone through…Can it be…that they anoint it with a view of making its interior run well, as they anoint their machinery?… As a general rule, he can’t amount to much in his totality”(Melville 123). These lines resonate with my last blog post on the etymology and extracts of the novel–discussing whales as something more than objects under capitalism, but animals that are cleverly invested under the nation– because as Ishmael tries to not ‘lay his treasures on earth’ as captain Peleg does, there is the unfortunate tragedy hidden in these chapters where he still tries to define his individuality under earthly status and approval of nobility. The next chapters–26 and 27– provide more insight into the sailors, almost dictating them under pawn status of the king. ‘Seasoning them for their designated functions’ adds to the sailor’s pawn role, subjecting them to merely surpress their emotions and complexities as humans in order to guarantee whaling success out in the seas. The chapters expose how their past trials and tribulations desensitized their emotions, reverting back to how the text also “anoints machinery with oil”, interestingly connecting to how the men on the ship become machinery that is already used to the difficult circumstances on the ship.

Week 7 : Chapters 13 – 27

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This weeks reading I found a bit more challenging than the readings prior and I think the main reason for that was the increase of dialogue between new characters. As Ishmael meets new characters and we are introduced to them, their conversations are relayed to us through dialouge, but the way in which they are written, I find a bit hard to read.

Despite that, the part of the reading that I found extremely interesting was essentially the entirety of Chapter 19 The Prophet and the character of Elijah. During his conversation with Ishmael, he says “Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all. ” This quote in particular really stuck with me because of how sort of prophetical, yet vague it is. Elijah acts as if he knows of what is to come in the future for the Pequod, yet at the same time we aren’t fully aware on if he actually does know something that they don’t or if he is just making a guess based on what he knows about the crew. Also throughout this chapter, we get more essentially ‘mythical’ descriptions and warnings about Captain Ahab through the vessel of Elijah. Something that I have really noticed that Herman Melville has done extremely well so far throughout this novel is build up suspense and intrigue for characters that we have yet to meet. If someone is going to be important to the story or to Ishmael later in the story, Melville will drag along their introduction, laying out intrigue through tales from other characters for both Ishmael and us the audience to truly wonder about. The use of a first person narrative through the mind of Ishmael really does help with this because we see him questioning and wondering about characters and in turn we begin to feel the same.

This chapter truly excited me to keep reading because of the intrigue it left of both meeting Captain Ahab and figuring out the fate of the crew of the Pequod. I am very interested to see if Elijah’s prophecies do come true for the crew. Something that was super interesting to me was the fact that religion has been such a massive aspect of the book so far and it is constantly brought up to the audience and to other characters, so the fact that Elijah has a biblical name makes me really wonder if his prophecies and predictions are actually rooted in more of a religious sign and warning for Ishmael and Queequeg rather than just a guess on his part.