10A. Moby-Dick (1851), Chs. 33-36

Napoleon on the Colonne de Vendome in Paris

ENCOUNTERS

Numbered responses are by ECU students.
Quotations are in red.
Italics indicate instructor comments and questions.

Ishmael at Sea

1. Since venturing out to sea, Ishmael has been sharing more observations and philosophies than he has a personal narrative. In chapter 35, Ishmael says, "There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God." The identity he had on land no longer serves a purpose on the sea, so instead of recounting his personal experiences, he gives more general observations of the Pequod's politics.

Anticipating Thoreau?

2. While explaining the state of bliss one may enter when on the mast, Ishmael closely mirrors the teachings of Henry David Thoreau. The following is reminiscent of some of Thoreau’s writing in Walden, “For the most part, in this tropic whaling life, a sublime uneventfulness invests you; you hear no news; read no gazettes; extras with startling accounts of commonplaces never delude you into unnecessary excitements; you hear of no domestic afflictions; bankrupt securities; fall of stocks; are never troubled with the thought of what you shall have for dinner- for all your meals for three years and more are snugly stowed in casks, and your bill of fare is immutable.” Ishmael is describing a sense of freedom one feels at sea, something that Thoreau wrote about with pride. Thoreau felt as though it is just as well to live in the wilderness free from the demands of capitalist, consumer society.

Ahab: Democrat,Tyrant, Demagogue, King?

3. It’s noted that the masthead that holds the ship’s lookouts is reminiscent to those podiums that hold statues of characters such as Napoleon, who “upon top the column in Vendôme” standing “some one hundred and fifty feet in the air.” This seems to further his belief as whaling being a royal and worthy vocation, by subtly displaying that it can elevate any man to the greatness of people like Napoleon.

4. As Ishmael says, “socially, Ahab was inaccessible;” however, what personally surprised me is the attitude Ahab has for himself compared to his crew. When the crew gathers for dinner, Ahab prepares the food himself and ensures everyone has been served before sitting down to eat. In addition to this, when Flask helps himself to the food a little too much, Ahab “never forbade him.”  From the examples Ishmael has given, we can presume that despite his gruff stature and persona, Ahab puts his crew above himself, perhaps possessing a heart of gold that was hidden from us until this point in the novel.

5. . . . “Starbuck and Stubb both had the start of him; and yet they also have the privilege of lounging in the rear. If Stubb even, who is but a peg higher than Flask, happens to have but a small appetite, and soon shows symptoms of concluding his repast, then Flask must bestir himself, he will not get more than three mouthfuls that day; for it is against holy usage for Stubb to precede Flask to the deck” (Melville). What purpose do these rules serve? What does this imply about the roles of the different mates, and why is there more expectation on those lower on the social ladder than vice versa? Shouldn’t he who receives the most pay and commands most of the ship have the most expected out of him? I believe the way that Flask is later described has something to do with what Melville is trying to express through the administration of this system, stating that “For what he ate did not so much relieve his hunger, as keep it immortal in him” (Melville). Is this half-forced starvation by social expectation purposeful to keep Flask on his toes? Is it meant to leave him foaming at the mouth for more, not just food and recognition, but more life?

6. [Ahab] is named after a Biblical king, he is the captain of a whale ship, and he remained a mysterious figure for almost thirty chapters. All this symbolism and build up led readers to believe he was going to be a grand figure, but Ishmael describes him as anything but. Ishmael describes him as “old” and possessing the trademark Nantucket “grimness and shagginess.”  Even in chapter 34, where Ishmael likens dinner with Ahab and the crew to a coronation banquet, he said “Ahab himself was dumb” in the way of social interactions.

7. Ishmael does not appear to think much of Ahab in the beginning. Ahab’s vengeful and loud personality comes out in chapter 36,when he puts a bounty on Moby Dick. He tells the crew, in a very Shakespearean-style monologue, that he’d “strike the sun if it insulted [him].” This is where the audience may start to see a connection between Ahab’s character and his name, this chapter portraying him as a tyrant, describing Starbuck and the crew as belonging to him, unable to leave without “rebellion.”

8. . . .  “More and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving, grew the countenance of the old man at every shout; while the mariners began to gaze curiously at each other, as if marveling how it was that they themselves became so excited at such seemingly purposeless questions,” . . . this opening serves as a motivational pep talk so the men see the purpose in seeing that Ahab’s personal affairs be rectified at their expense (although, of course, they are to be under the impression that this is what is just, that it is what must be done). His following speech and brandishing of coins and promise of money reads like war propaganda, as though he were a military recruiter who feigns concern and patriotism in exchange for able and readied bodies of young men who haven’t the slightest idea that they are merely a necessary part of a larger machine. He uses perfumed words to entice and manipulate his crowd, saying, “Attend now, my braves. […] Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat’s bow—Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!” His usually stoic and imbittered countenance has been revitalized in consideration of his internal motivations to hunt the whale who took his leg and left room for a whale-ivory trophy in its place. At sea, the men cannot protest much to his order—he finds it apt to radicalize them from their mere whaler mentality to a blood-thirsty hunger for a particular Moby Dick.

On May 16, 1871, a group of Communards led by the painter Gustave Courbet pulled down the Vendôme Column.

Revolution?

9. In chapter 36 of Moby Dick, Ahab finally decides to tell the crew why they are on their voyage. Contrary to what many of them believed, it was for a very specific purpose. “And this is what ye have shipped for, men! To chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out.” Ahab decided to tell the crew this after they were quite far into the sea, too late to turn back.... One reason Ahab likely waited to tell the crew is because they could not refuse. Once they were far enough onto the ocean, there was no way for them to get back to land, besides on the Pequod. This would prevent them from revolting against him.

The Eucharist (Communion)

10. Another display of grandeur took place on “The Quarter Deck” where a scene, that likely had no accidental similarity to the Eucharist, took place. It was when Ahab, after his rousing speech, demanded that his first, second, and third mate present “the detached iron parts of their harpoons” and that they shall “cant them over” into which he “brimmed the harpoon sockets with fiery waters.” The scene consolidates the roles of Starbuck, Stub, and Flask in Ahab’s plan as they’ve properly pledged themselves to him, as if he were now their god. In addition to this, Starbuck, a man who “courage was not a sentiment; but a thing simply useful to” was left “paled, and turned, and shivered” by the ritual. Another interesting note to be made by the ceremony is as, for Starbuck is a “quaker by descent”, he’d be a member of a “Christian tradition that does not practice the Eucharist.”

11. Ahab also has the men make a vow to hunt Moby Dick and has them “drink and pass” a flagon. This could be an allusion to communion, as some sort of drink is shared to celebrate redemption, the destruction of evil, and the unity of the congregation. Now that Ahab appears more reverent than insane, his motivations also shift. With all the biblical references present in this chapter, Ahab could be seen as a warrior hunting down an evil force in order to destroy it. Yet, he could also be viewed as a man hunting God . . .

12. Again, in chapter 35 of Moby-Dick, another biblical reference shows up. It is written in the novel:
"I take it, that the earliest standers of mast-heads were the old Egyptians; because, in all my researches, I find none prior to them For though their progenitors, the builders of Babel, must doubtless, by their power, have intended, to rear the loftiest mast-head in all Asia, or Africa either; yet (ere the final truck was put to it) as that great stone mast of theirs may be said to have gone by the board, in the dread gale of God’s wrath"  . . , God was in fact not accepting of the idea of the Tower of Babel.