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.