Tag Archives: Dianna Sittidet

A Lesson In Arts and Crafts – What Does It Mean?

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Moby-Dick exists as a novel that remains elusive in creating a universal understanding for readers. It remains inscrutable in and of itself, the titular creature of the whale working as Melville’s key unknowing analytical symbol. This is apparent in Chapter 79, “The Prairie,” as Ishmael describes the process of attempting to understand the whale’s brow through a lens of science. The human mind carries a constrained capability to decipher the mysterious whale, thus it promotes vast amounts of interpretation by evading any true meaning. My project entailed creating a box costume, representing the attempt to find meaning in interpreting the appearance of the whale based off of the novel’s descriptions. This works alongside Melville’s criticism towards phrenology, as a means of highlighting the way interpretation evades typical structured meaning.

Firstly, the novel itself claims that “face reading,” that is Physiognomy, is a flawed science that remains incapable of interpreting a whale. Ishmael notes, “Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable…I but put that brow before you. Read it if you can” (Melville 380). Ishmael offers the challenge of understanding the whale’s brow by addressing readers directly. Melville by extension finds fault with Physiognomy, calling it and other sciences a “passing fable.” A fable entails that it is akin myth or legend, as Physiognomy in modern times remains a pseudoscience now obsolete. Ishmael also mentions Champollion, the French philologist responsible for cracking the code of hieroglyphics. The line “But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face,” essentially states that there is no one central meaning, no one person capable of understanding everything or every face. Again the whale’s brow, and by extension the whale entirely, evades definition because of how humans are attempting to decipher it with the use of a specific lens. Everyone comes to find their own understanding, as knowledge remains a shared concept across human beings.

Information evolves over time, and creating the whale costume entailed finding my own explanation of understanding the whale’s appearance. Even if the symbol of the whale within the novel is inscrutable, the reader becomes significant in the process of finding their own definition as the novel itself constantly prompts readers to do so when constant themes and main ideas are tossed into the sea of the mind. Utilizing a box to create the shape of a whale required the references from Melville’s writing, but there was also a means of using modern technology and information alongside Moby Dick’s descriptive language. I took mental images of the whiteness of the whale, alongside making a pun on “The Prairie” chapter itself upon the brow. This in turn allowed me to find my own ideas towards what I think the whale could have truly looked like, as the costume could have referenced Moby Dick itself or the whale the Pequod had already slain. Chipped, dirty, and bloodied teeth, came about from the character’s ideas of violent animals. In addition to this, current scientific information showed that sperm whales only have a lower row of teeth. Accidentally giving the costume both rows of teeth before rescinding the mistake became both a learning experience and a creative one in an attempt to be “accurate” towards the novel. 

Walter E. Bezanson’s “Moby Dick: Work of Art” (1953) essay commemorates the 100th anniversary of the novel’s publication, and his line “For the good reader the experience of Moby Dick is a participation in the act of creation. Find a key work or metaphor, start to pick it as you would a wild flower, and you will find yourself ripping up the whole forest floor,” written only 72 years ago, still holds true to this day. Bezanson’s line carries a sense of reverence, a sense of admiration for a novel that had done poorly during its time.  Experiencing Moby Dick, reading it, analyzing it, dissecting it just like the Whale, creates an active participation as he claims. Spending time with the novel alongside creating a costume for this final project is an act of curious creation. Even with the terrestrial language Bezanson provides, the whale is the “key work or metaphor.” Picking at such a grandiose creature one can only dream of seeing up close is one of the reasons why the project was created to be more tangible. It is interactive, it “tears up the whole forest floor” of my imagination, and it has myself participating in finding my own interpretation of a whale, if not the whale. 

Another analytical lens towards this creative project comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The American Scholar.” Delivered in 1837 at Harvard University, Emerson called for intellectual independence. Making the box costume brought about the question of “why?” So what if a simple imaginative whale costume was made, why does it hold significance? Simply put, it carries significance because a reader’s self interpretation is important in and of its own due to the nature behind what is being presented within the novel. Emerson said, “Is not, indeed, every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student’s behoof?” All things, literature, nature, knowledge, it “exists” to a student’s “behoof.” Behoof. Benefit. Advantage. Moby Dick itself exists for students and readers alike to interpret for themselves because there are vastly different analyses. The box could simply be a box to someone else. It could pose as some insignificant toy that is simply a whale. Even so, it exists because time was spent in creating something to benefit existing knowledge pertaining to the novel. 

The inscrutable language of the novel creates this sense of a treacherous voyage in trying to decipher what Melville is telling readers. Language and life itself carries a plethora of meanings, and some messages being conveyed or taught are only know to the author when readers are presented with their novel. Melville’s criticism of Phrenology inherently had not effected the creation of the whale box because scientific information had long since evolved. Not only this, but all beings are capable of creation and interpretation, finding meaning merely becomes a question of how someone knows what they have come to know. The novel, other readers, and the internet all provided key information. As Emerson attempts to convey that it is significant for scholars to go out into nature and find their own observations alongside Bezanson’s explanation of Moby Dick as an active participation of bringing thoughts into tangible existence, the definition of meaning is brought about by only by oneself. 

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Works Cited:

Bezanson, Walter E. “Moby-Dick: Work of Art.” Moby-Dick Centennial Essays. Tyrus Hillway and Luther S. Mansfield, eds. Southern Methodist University Press, 1953.

Emerson, R. W. (n.d.). The American Scholar. Emerson–“The american scholar”. https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/amscholar.html

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale. Edited by Andrew Delbanco and Tom Quirk, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003

Final Takeaway

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A little late I know, but so what is a question that may or may not haunt me for the rest of my literary analysis. It’s a question that I presumed used to have a “simple” answer, but even that is putting it lightly. Being in this class made me realize that there are so many interesting interpretations within literary analysis and criticism, and that no one thing is truly correct even if it is the big consensus that people believe. I always had a small fear behind saying something incorrect, or saying something that really didn’t go anywhere, but ultimately, so what?? Literally, so what. There’s always a so what attached to someone half of the time, and I really do think this class helped in fixing a very ingrained mindset. Struggle might not feel nice, but it is important to have. Smooth-sailing just sounds a little boring anyways, and I really do appreciate the way this class has built on some previous foundation of writing skills that were a lot weaker because wow, standardized testing really messed me over. Reading is an important skill, and just about anything can be “read” to this level if you just try hard enough.

The Hivemind of many bodies – Chapter 134

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“They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship that held them all; thought it was put together of all contrasting things–oak, and maple, and pine wood; iron, and pitch, and hemp–yet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both balanced and directed by the long central keel; even so, all the individualities of the crew, this man’s valor, that man’s fear, guilt, and guiltlessness, all varieties were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to.” (606)

What a loaded chunk of a paragraph! I think what caught my eye was essentially the fact that the language of the chapter made everyone on the whaleboats like one functioning unit. Throughout the entire novel, we’ve had instances of descriptions like this, but it is only when chasing the titular whale Moby Dick does this language become stronger in my opinion. Pointing out the “individualities” of the crew, all of these components that make a human, only to then describe the fact that they bleed together to worship and keel down to Ahab, it’s honestly a little admirable yet scary. Working together as a unit seems like a no brainer when it comes to the whaling industry, as its perils and dangers are ever clear. The line “They were one man, not thirty.” doesn’t seem like it feels true, but the ship itself melds together because in that moment, everyone is focused on the singular “fatal goal” that spells doom.

They all agreed long long ago to pledge themselves to Ahab, their “one lord.” Additionally, being “welded”, that is combined to become a harmonious whole or actively melted by heat to be fused together emphasizes the idea that everyone is dead set on that singular goal. The unison is uncanny, as all walks of life on the ship join together. I think it sounds fairly poetic, as we all know it spells out the eventual fate of the Pequod by the fins of Moby Dick.

Essay # 2 – The Menu

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The ethics behind animal use and rights have not been a popular topic within American history for very long, but the morals behind which animals are deemed fit to eat has been an argumentative subject. Different societies and ways of life have vastly dissimilar views as to how animals are meant to be utilized, and Ishmael criticizes the typical means of animal consumption within American society within the mid 19th century. By the use of irony and satire when explaining situations that are common in those who have never stepped foot on the sea, Melville points out the hypocrisy of “civilized” and normalized habits in chapter 65. This reveals the ignorance behind mindless consumption and gathering, humans carrying an unnecessary need for cruelty from convenience, not necessity. Thus, Melville emphasizes that critical attitudes towards moral standards of consumption is inherently hypocritical, questioning who is deserving of acting as judge.

Chapter 65, dubbed “The Whale as a Dish” begins with Ishmael explaining the brief history of whale meat as a food. It is the ending passage of the chapter that calls into question Melville’s point of moral hypocrisy towards animals as food. “But Stubb, he eats the whale by its own light, does he? And that is adding insult to injury, is it? Look at your knife-handle, there, my civilized and enlightened gourmand dining off that roast beef, what is that handle made of?—what but the bones of the brother of the very ox you are eating? And what do you pick your teeth with, after devouring that fat goose? With a feather of the same fowl.” (327) Stubb here is initially used as a device rather than a character, a conduit to introduce Ishmael’s parallels towards other very common practices within the dining world. “But Stubb, he eats the whale by its own light does he?” is ironic. Irony is utilized here for an emphatic effect, as adding “insult to injury” for a dead whale is pointless. After hunting the whale from previous chapters, Stubb is eating the rich meat besides a lamp lit by whale oil. Ishmael is also a man of the sea, so he does not condemn Stubb for eating the whale. As he points out later in the passage, there is an argument that denotes other dining practices as vastly similar. Oil is the byproduct of the whale, and it is what most whales are hunted for during this era. It makes sense for Stubb’s lamp to be lit by the very oil of the whale he is eating. Thus, Melville asks why is a “civilized and enlightened gourmand” capable of judgement towards Stubb? The experiences of whale men are not so common to most on land,  judgement becomes ill-placed.

Ishmael carries a lack of judgement for Stubb, but he addresses the reader to point out the civilized hypocrisy of the situation twice. Readers are told where exactly to look first, as Ishmael says “Look at your knife-handle, there…” The eyes are brought towards the cutlery on the table, followed by the “roast beef” the subject is dining on. He calls upon the reader to ponder afterwards, asking “what is that handle made of?” The assumption could be wood initially, but Ishmael eventually reveals “what but the bones of the brother of the very ox you are eating?” In the act of consuming the roast beef, there is an idea that many do not pay mind to what their utensil is made of. For many years, animal bones have been utilizes for tools and cutlery alike. As such, the situation presents itself as similar to Stubb’s consumption of whale meat. The “gourmand”, that is someone who is deeply fond of food and drink, is eating beef with another ox whose bones were used to make the very knife that cuts the meal. It is satire that criticizes the issue behind food use and waste, which then prompts readers to think to the relations behind how humans treat and exploit animals for their own use. 

Another example that Ishmael presents to the reader in comparison to Stubb’s whale is geese. He questions the reader once again, asking “And what do you pick your teeth with, after devouring that fat goose? With a feather of the same fowl.” Audiences are told once more where to look, but the language of this line differs from that of the ox. “Devouring” is more of a violent descriptor of consumption, and why is the goose specifically described as “fat”? The history behind this is simple. In order to create more appetizing geese, as well as the pate de foie gras mentioned earlier within the chapter, geese are force fed to fatten up their livers. The word “fat” is a hidden notion towards this exploitive practice, suggesting that the reader is aware of this entirely rational yet inhumane action. It gives leeway towards judgement, as humans additionally utilize the “feather of the same fowl” to “pick your teeth with” after dining. To use part of the animal that was just consumed in order to clean the bodily tool that ate it seems wholly normal, but it is this that is supposedly more civilized that Stubb’s whale and oil lamp.

Melville suggests that animal exploitation is part of the human condition, yet labels the reader as a “civilized and enlightened gourmand.” “Civilized” suggests that someone or something is to be characterized as having taste or refinement, highlighting the idea that Ishmael is almost “speaking” to the fact that Stubb, or whale men are not. The “civilized” world is entirely susceptible to hypocrisy in this case, as most civilized folk at the time were unaware of the toils of the sea unless they were whale men themselves, and would not care to eat a whale due to its impractical richness and meat. Additionally “enlightened” has many potential defined meanings, but there is one in particular that is ironic towards the situation. Enlightenment implies that someone free from ignorance or misinformation. The description is contradictory, as Melville hints within this chapter that most land dwellers are incapable of seeing the ironic paradox that presents itself within “civilized” dining customs. Ishmael presents these two scenarios to point out that the common practice of the times add towards the irony behind consuming whale meat next to its byproduct. 

Moral outrage towards human and animal relationships tend to be misplaced. Ishmael draws these parallels towards beef and fowl to show that exploitive practices are not unique to the job of whaling. It is hypocritical to draw judgement towards different practices that do not fit within a cultural norm. Until recently of the time within the book, geese were being plucked for feathers to create quills. There are inconsistencies that Ishmael points out, certain animal practices may change yet those of the present believe older customs that society are used to remain reasonable. What practices seem barbaric to the civilized and enlightened gourmand? Why are people inherently incapable of receiving criticisms towards what they believe to be ordinary? Whale men seem demonized because of their occupational hazards, but it is human for man to keep some kind of moral high ground. 

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.

The Plain View of the Prairie (Chapter 79)

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It took me a second to realize that Ishmael was referring to the whale’s forehead in this chapter. Part of me wondered as to why the chapter itself is named “The Prairie” mostly in the idea that a Prairie itself is an environment just full of grasses and wildflowers, much unlike the sea we’ve been on for the past however many chapters. I also had to search up what exactly “Physiognomist” and “Phrenologist” meant, and when I found that these were essentially terms for people who judged character based off of facial characteristics, then it started making a little more sense when I finished the chapter.

Ishmael is essentially trying his best to “read” the whale, rather, read the forehead of the whale despite the challenges. Most notably, he mentions “For you see no one point precisely; not one distinct feature is revealed; no nose, eyes, ears or mouth; no face; he has none, proper; nothing but that one broad firmament of a forehead, pleated with riddles; dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, and ships, and men. Nor, in profile, does this wondrous brow diminish; though that way viewed, its grandeur does not domineer upon you so.” (379)

I didn’t think this important at all at first, I found myself wondering why it is that a science like this even existed back in the 19th century, but it adds into the previous chapters explaining the sides of the head of the whale, that we have to understand, or at least try to understand the whale itself. The whales throughout a lot of the chapters have had a mythic quality to them, but I feel as if the chapters describing all of the anatomy and the process of “reading” this anatomy puts into perspective the idea that they’re also just creatures at the end of the day. Understanding, or trying to understand them, is a fruitless attempt. No features are offered on the “brow” or forehead of the beast, and it kind of makes this chunk feel pointless other than the line of “…thought that way viewed, its grandeur does not domineer upon you so.” Readers have to imagine what its like to be a whale to even fathom it, and Ishmael himself invites us to do so with the ending lines of “I but put that brow before you. Read it if you can.” (380)

It’s obvious in this day and age that we really can’t read it, a forehead is just a forehead, but the fruitless endeavor of trying to read the forehead of the whale just seems so symbolic of unknowingness despite Ishmael’s semi-knowledgeable self on cetology. It’s like a really frustrating paradox trying to figure it all out.

Chapter 46: Is Man a Tool?

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I believe this is one of the first chapters that addresses the idea of Ahab being aware of his tyrannical tendencies and near insane quest to solely focus on Moby Dick. Ishmael himself observes that Captain Ahab hasn’t entirely lost his mind, but it doesn’t change the fact that he has to ensure that the crew remain all for his idea, lest the boredom of the sea change their minds. There’s a clear fear of a mutiny, but the line that centralized Ahab’s command over the Pequod out of the entire chapter were the lines connecting the pages.

“Starbuck’s body and Strabuck’s coerced will were Ahab’s, so long as Ahab kept his magnet at Starbuck’s brain; still he knew that for all this the chief mate, in his soul, abhorred his captain’s quest, and could he, would joyfully disintegrate himself from it, or even frustrate it.” (230-231)

Ishmael mentions that Ahab “must use tools” (230) in order to complete his quest for vengeance, but Ishmael himself points out that Men are most prone to breaking the order on the ship. I think what primarily makes me ponder this specific line though is the idea that even if Starbuck opposes Ahab so greatly, he’s still under his command. Even if there is clear defiance, who in their right mind (with how early we are within the novel) would defy such a maniacal yet clear-sighted man? He might not be clear-sighted in a means of rational thought, but he is clear sided in what he wants, in this quest to hunt down the very whale that took his leg. Another thing to mention is the way Ishmael observes “coerced.” Starbuck here is clearly forced to do Ahab’s bidding. Whether by force or a threat, Ahab himself is a man of loaded language and even greater force, he’s full of charisma, and is able to continue using the crew as tools, no matter the position. While we have discussed in class that the Pequod is like a nation, I’m starting to see them as a toolbox. Ahab can pick what he needs to use for whatever purpose it is, and as diverse as the sailors may be, the hysteria (or potential languor) all melds them together into one hive-mind of a crew to be used under Ahab.

Lost In Thoughts All Alone

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Romanticism has been a key theme and subject within American classics for roughly two-hundred years now. As a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement, it promotes the basis of exploring human thoughts on nature, emotion, individualism, and the depths of the imagination. This movement had occurred as a response to the Age of Enlightenment, alongside mass industrialization. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is one key staple within the American literary canon, and is an example that explores a potentially darker side to Romanticism through his characters upon the Pequod, most notably the narrator Ishmael. Chapter 35 has Ishmael diving into the experience of being upon the Mast Head, and the way it impacts sailors. With the use of “you” and intense imagery, Ishmael describes his perspective on taking a high position above the sea atop the Pequod. As the audience designated narrator of the novel, his thought process attacks his own character and is highly philosophical. Melville here is documenting the romantic movement through Ishmael as a way to demonstrate humanity’s innate pull towards it.

Ishmael as our narrator describes, “There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous colossus at old Rhodes. There you stand lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor.” (169) Not only does this promote the image of imagining ourself upon the ship alongside him, but the idle yet active task on being above the mast head sounds just as boring as the languor Ishmael mentions. It is reflective of how romanticism is viewed, and how natural it comes to Ishmael. Melville shows how merely being surrounded by nature in and on its own drags this pensive and provocative emotion out of the narrator. He himself states how he is not focused on his job of spotting whales, breaking a bit of a fourth wall to describe how he is in the midst of daydreaming to give the readers a means of envisioning how all encompassing the sea is. There is a calm that lulls him, the “languor” and the rocking sensation of the ship take over his rational senses to scout for Moby-Dick.  

Ishmael chooses to over complicate how he falls into this philosophical bout of romantic feelings. Humanizing and characterizing the inanimate objects around him, such as the Pequod itself, is a means for Ishmael to connect to a larger perspective. The ship is mostly subject to this phenomenon, as it is the only thing that keeps Ishmael relatively grounded and terrestrial on a sea that refuses to remain the same. He has to be attached to what keeps him afloat, even saying how “The tranced ship indolently rolls…” (169) The ship has become tranced and hypnotized by the ocean, not Ishmael until he climbs up for his shift upon the mast-head. Connecting to the Pequod drags him into his own thoughts. This vast ocean of “the hugest monsters of the sea,” (169) this large blue mystery that houses the very thing that will pay him for his trouble, it is all he can see or talk about within this chapter dedicated solely to the mast-head. Melville here implies within this passage that Ishmael is being pushed into a state of reflection, rather than specifically choosing to reach into the depths of his mind on his own. It is indicative of a darker side to romanticism, but nonetheless does it break down Ishmael’s defenses on the job as he is “resolved into languor.” (169)

Melville’s language throughout Moby Dick holds purpose in the chapter it serves. Ishmael’s words within chapter 35 read as deeply rooted in mythology itself, “even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous colossus at old Rhodes…” (169) This is a common trend within romanticism, in which the movement utilizes mythology to explore the wonders of the imagination. Working alongside the metaphor of “as if the masts were gigantic stilts…” (169) readers connect the idea of being a colossus, a tall statue that matches, or even surpasses the height of the mast-head Ishmael stands upon. While the statue itself no longer stands in its original location thanks to an earthquake, it puts readers into picturing sailing under its massive size. Even if the mast-head proves to be a high location in which someone is able to look down at the sea as nothing but a spectator, the position on the Pequod lulls the individual to view the sea in a romantic lens. Just as the colossus at old Rhodes stares off at the same scene everyday, Ishmael similarly can only see the grand ocean. 

Addressing the readers, “There you stand lost in the infinite series of the sea…” (169) is an honest viewpoint to how romanticism focuses on individualism as well. Readers are capable of being solitary within the situation presented upon the Pequod. While being in Ishmael’s shoes, there is a dreadful and dull sense of loneliness atop the mast-head. Even if he is not necessarily alone on the ship, he is expressing the individual thought that criticizes his capability to do his job properly. An individual perspective allows for both imperfection and flaws, something wholly human while in the expanse of nature. 

With the romantic movement having been a response and product of fast industrialization, it is no surprise that it was killing whaling as a business. Even though whaling had been considered a first within American trade, the introduction of new fuel sources had begun to make it all obsolete. Industrialization itself had drawn people away from nature, away from the ocean, away and off of the Pequod in the search for Moby-Dick. Romanticism puts a clear yet muddled focus upon the natural world, emotion winning over reason. As the novel’s narrator, Ishmael himself is a flawed yet observant person. “The Mast-Head” as a chapter demonstrates the lack of excitement for any sailor who would find himself paralyzingly high. Using religious, mythological, and natural allegories, Ishmael is Melville’s direct conduit into what readers can analyze as romanticism. Moreover, the crew of the Pequod eventually show a much darker side of the movement. Whether or not it is a central key theme to Moby Dick, it is unmistakably shown through the language describing the sea.

Chapter 7 – The Chapel (And Death.)

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Ishmael finds himself entering a Whaleman’s chapel within this chapter, talking about his observations and feelings towards the idea of death. Part of me feels similarly towards his feelings about plaques, and while it is easy to imagine the countenance on the people he sees in the middle of mourning, I think this chapter puts into perspective on how people are supposed to understand and tackle the idea of a loved one dying. (Or anyone dying in general for that matter.) Ishmael himself doesn’t seem entirely bothered by the idea of death as we’ve seen, but he reflects this specific idea. “…yet lies antique Adam who died sixty round centuries ago; how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakable bliss; why all the living so strive to hush all the dead…” (42) Ishmael seems baffled by the idea of people grieving loss at the idea of (Christian) heaven being a better place.

Additionally, he also makes a point about how those who embark for specific work or journeys are paid while others are not. There’s merit in how a man’s life is held. Going back to the plaques, I believe Melville’s intention of putting them in this chapter preface’s the idea that we are not necessarily supposed to feel anything at all. From Ishmael’s standpoint, there isn’t any sense of grief or personal connection. Why should these plaques take up a whole/half a page? Is there any true significance other than the idea that the whaling journey he is about to embark on might have him turn into nothing but a plaque as well? Is someone going to grieve him? Melville makes the chapter foreboding, and it changes the tone from the previous chapters before.

Week 5 : Extracting Value

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Simply put, I think the extracts chapter really put into perspective of what the audience can expect out of the book. Take a shot every time you read the word “Leviathan,” and I’m sure you’ll be feeling it by the end. Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Rabeleis, Lord Bacon’s Version of the Psalms, Paradise Lost, Ibid, list goes on. I personally know the Leviathan as a mythical creature in different kinds of media, but knowing its history from the Hebrew Bible, it goes to show just how much a Whale represented back then. It’s this huge, imposing, mythical creature to these people in the whaling industry, and I can already picture the kind of damage that is going to happen in this book. I specifically want to connect this description and this mention of Leviathan to a point Ishmael makes in chapter 1.

He mentions this large chunk about money and payment, saying, “Again, I always go to sea as a sailor, because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of…The act of paying is perhaps the most uncomfortable infliction that the two orchard thieves entailed upon us. But being paid,–what will compare with it?” (6) We understand from the background of whaling that the industry utilizes (I hope) most parts of the animal, more specifically for things like blubber and oil. Ishmael makes it clear that going to sea as a sailor has more of a benefit than a passenger thanks to the work involved in such. Going after this “Leviathan” like creature surely poses a monetary benefit, but I think that this passage spells disaster. With how thick of a book Moby Dick is, I am so certain that Melville is loading this up to be a set of trial and tribulation that doesn’t end up keeping Ishmael’s monetary attention. I get a selfish kind of read from his statement about being paid, and while I can agree that getting paid is a great feeling, this Leviathan creature has to be humbling, or else I’m going to be very disappointed.