mahjae05’s Blog

Since someone brought it up in class, I am going to try to develop a thesis for the essay and incorporate it into all of the journals.  As I’ve been reading, the one thing that really stood out to me about the characters is their quest for harder tasks and for more competition within their lives.  In chapter 30, Stubbs’ altercation with Ahab is a prime example of this.  Though Ahab is the captian, Stubbs’ will for competition and more power caused him to fight with Ahab.  This fight for power seems like it will be a reoccuring theme on the boat throughout the book.  I felt the chapter about the pipe was very interesting and shows a lot about the themes of the book.  The first thing that I noticed was that Ahab smokes on the weathered side of the deck.  Though subtle, this detail seems very significant to me.  Also, while smokeing, Ahab realizes that it does not pleasure him anymore and throws the pipe into the water.  This shows how he is seeking for more competition in his life; he has seen it all and now is trying to tackle something he has never beat before.

This foreshadowing is just getting very tedious and unoriginal.  With the “prophet” Elijah coming back and directly saying that the Pequot is doomed to destruction, I do not know how to approach this book any further.  After our discussion about biblical Ahab and Elijah, it seems as if Melville is just making things way too obvious.  Aside from the prophet, I was also a little confused on the meaning of the “shadowy” figures which Ishmael claimed to have seen walking towards the ship on the docks.  What do they represent?  Is it, once again, some biblical reference to the story of Ahab?  I feel the shadows represent some sort of angel of death coming down and boarding the ship.  Just as Elijah said on page 91, “…unless it’s before the Grand Jury” the concept of these angels of death aboard this ship of dead whale parts does not seem too far fetched.  Also, once they do get onto the boat, the ship rigger says how Ahab had gone aboard that night.  With Ahab and possibly angels of death being the only people aboard the ship, I feel this shows essentially how death follows Ahab around…Not a great sign for our man Ishmael.

The way Ishmael decided to choose the Pequot as his ship is very questionable to me. With all of Queequeg’s faith in him, and the importance of being on a decent ship for the next four years of his life, I feel Ishmael’s decision reflects much more then just a spur of the moment feeling. Melville seems to be putting a strong emphasis on religion in this book. With the biblical references with all the characters names, and with Queequeg’s battle with his religious views, I feel Melville is trying to say something about religion during his times. Maybe not so much religion but more the themes portrayed in religious stories. In the story with King Ahab and Elijah, I feel the main theme is about how greed and integrity influences ones life. In the book, Ahab will probably have some greedy passion which brings himself down and maybe even the rest of the ship. With that story in mind, along with the excessive foreshadowing by Melville with characters such as Elijah, I feel that this book may take a turn for the worst once Ahab reveals his true self and true intensions.

I cannot understand what Melville’s aims are in creating this more-then-just-friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg. Doesn’t this story take place during the 1800’s? People today do not fully accept homosexuality, no less in the 1800’s, and yet it seems like Melville is curving the characters off the normal path. Maybe I am going a bit far in saying that the main character is a homosexual, but regardless it seems as if this relationship may foreshadow events to come involving Queequeg saving Ishmael at sea. We already saw how Queequeg jumped into the freezing water to save a person whom he didn’t even like on their trip to Nantucket, but how much further would he go to save someone he does like? That foreshadowing is a little more discrete though then much of Melville’s other foreshadowing throughout these chapters. It seems like he is being way too obvious about these signs and symbols, and I feel it is taking away from the overall story. Ishmael directly says in chapter 15, when they reach the Try-Pots inn, that he feels the gallows-looking mast seems to foreshadow their journey to come. Though I know about the ultimate demise of the boat from outside sources, I could have probably still figured it out by just reading. It seems strange to me that Melville is doing this. Could there possibly be some crazy plot twists along the way?

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