mahjae05’s Blog

I’ve heard a few times in class that Chapter 87, The Grand Armada, was one of the best chapters in the book and thus I decided to have my way with it.  Just as the thesis of my essay says, Melville is trying to show how competition is the defining attribute of American life.  In this chapter, the Pequod encounters dozens of pods of whales, while at the same time being chased by pirates.  I feel this is very symbolic of the way many Americans go about their daily lives.  You are always after someone, either with exploitative or competitive  purposes, while at the same time someone is always on your tail trying to do the same thing.  It is a never ending cycle in which one is always at work to rise higher on the never ending ladder of power.  The last paragraph of the chapter reads, “Of all the drugged whales only one was captured.  The rest contrived to escape for the time, but only to be taken, as will hereafter be seen, by some other craft than the Pequod”.  Even though they had drugged many whales, for all there work they only captured one.  With all of the fierce competition throughout life, no matter how hard one works there will always be someone tagging along, exploiting you.  With such extensive competition there will always be many people fighting for the same thing and not always does the one with the most skill win.  Even though some aspects of life take skill, much of life is simply about being in the right place at the right time.  Skill can only get one so far, but without a little luck, one is always left fighting.

It seems like Melville enjoys throwing philosophical curve-balls at the reader within the last two sentences of each chapter.  Whether it be a series of questions about the nature of man or a statement about whaling that subtly links to human interaction in society, Melville is constantly throwing these quick one-liners that keep my head spinning.  At the end of chapter 81, The Pequod Meets the Virgin, Melville says, “Oh! many are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks, my friend” (284).  He had to use about 10 pages to set up one very interesting point, which was actually formulated within the last page of the chapter.  I find it very interesting though how Melville went about the plot in chapter 81 and how he finished the chapter with that statement.  The entire chapter was about the competition between the two ships over a whale, and how the more experienced whalers eventually beat out the “virgin” whalers.  With that concept, and the last sentence, Melville is trying to show how competition is characterized experience and knowledge.  He thinks that too many unworthy people, such as the crew of Derick’s ship, strive to obtain goals which are out of their reach, such as the fin-back whale.  With the naiveity, people can not reach any of the goals in their life, and thus are stuck chasing uncatchable whales their entire lives.  It is quite ironic though that someone aboard the Pequod could make fun of the bad decisions of another boat considering their quest.  Maybe its more of a too high of a standard against an unobtainable goal but still.  I’m not sure.

The situation with the Jeroboam sparked much interest to me while I was reading these chapters because some of the ideas brought up in this chapter were pretty similar to ideas I had touched on in recent blogs. Similarly as in chapter 51, the Spirit Spout, Moby Dick is not seen as a whale but more-so some sort of god figure. It is quite interesting how Fedallah, who is seen as a devil figure, is going after Moby Dick, while Gabriel, the “archangel”, is warning against going after him. Melville is showing how a status of all powerful cannot be achieved and much struggle comes with this pursuit. The man Macey and his death show this struggle. Even though he thought he could take on Moby Dick, he was instead killed by one flick of the tail, leaving his hesitant crew to decide this own fates. With Gabriel’s prophecy coming true, all the men on the Jeroboam became believers and allowed him to start controlling their lives. This is showing how easily the public can be manipulated when vying for power, and the people who are best at manipulating others, such as Gabriel, are the ones who gain the most power.

I’m not really sure how Melville does it, but in every chapter, he starts off with one concrete idea and turns it into some crazy obscure philosophical monologue. In this case, in chapter 58, he somehow said two sentences about the yellowness of brit, and suddenly connected it with the ocean which he then went further to connect to the human soul. Regardless, I found his connection with the human soul very interesting. In many cases, the ocean/water is seen as a place of freedom and serenity. In the book, The Adventures of Huck Finn, by Mark Twain, the Mississippi River served as a place of safety and freedom for Huck from the outside world. The river also served as a guide to his life, because he could only go as far as it took him. In this case though, the ocean is seen as a place of unpredictability and horror. The water does not protect or guide humans but rather is out destroy them. Melville is saying that the outside world is the ocean, and the small island is ones mind and soul. There is ferocious competition within the dark depths of the ocean, and one is only safe on his small patch of land. He is warning about the destructiveness of society on ones individuality and their mind. The immense competition of the ocean is out to destroy the one safe haven for the crew being the ship just as competition in society is out to destroy ones soul.

Chapter 51, The Spirit Spout, was very interesting in a few senses. On any other night, no one would have considered calling for a lowering if a whale was spotted, and yet something about this certain spout caused people to think and act differently. It seemed like, for some reason, everyone just intuitively knew that that spout was from Moby Dick. Not only did Ahab consider going after the spout of Moby Dick at night, but also the crew seemed content with following it. Though Ahab’s obsession, which is seen later in the chapter as he falls asleep over his chart, is expected, I found it very interesting that the crew did not question it more. I think that Moby Dick is not supposed to be seen as a whale at all. Melville has been constantly creating distance between Moby Dick and all other “normal” whales to a point where Moby Dick is pretty much some completely different animal; maybe even less so an animal but more of just a pure idea. On page 192, Ishmael describes the spout as, “…some plumed and glittering god uprising from the sea”. That reference to a god, among all of the biblical references Melville uses in every chapter, makes me think that Moby Dick is supposed to be seen as some sort of all-powerful higher being. It was also interesting that Fedallah, who has been described as a phantom devil person, was the one to call for a lowering. God vs. Devil, Heaven vs. Hell, and Ahab vs. Moby Dick. Seems like a nice battle to me.

I think Melville was afraid in chapter 47.  He was playing around with the concepts of time, fate, and such and then suddenly, he throws some dusky phantoms into the mix to bail himself out.  At least he realized his mistake before he got to deep into it.  I’m very sad to say though, his mentioning of the Loom of Time intrigued me.  With the footnote being of no help and the internet being of very little help, I guess I can say whatever I really want about this Loom of Time.  The concept of time confuses me.  It is just one of those unexplainable things which really angers me because I cannot grasp it.  I am much more of a concrete idea based person and anything that I do not understand seems to piss me off.  There are really no other ways of approaching unexplainable concepts such as time and space and this book, so instead of stressing out over things I will never understand, I simply get mad.  Ishmael, with his Loom of Time, is trying to portray a battle between fate and free will.  On page 179 he says, “… aye, chance, free will, and necessity- no wise incompatible- all interweavingly working together.  The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its ultimate course…”  I feel that these two sentences contradict each other.  The first one says how it was by chance that the sword skewed the pattern, but at the same time the second sentence says how to path cannot be skewed.  Hm.  Maybe he is saying that, though one can make their own choices in life and choose their own path to get there, in the end, they are destined to one fate regardless of any other choice they made.  Foreshadowing?

Wow… I found my favorite part of the book so far.  In chapter 42, after a 7 page rant about all the obscure uses of white in the history of the world, Melville says, “And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol” (165).  I could make some crazy deep connection about the color white right now but just I’m tired.  I don’t really like this book to much and I really don’t like these blogs.  But anyway… I feel that The Whiteness of the Whale is an important chapter in the book and will be a reoccurring theme throughout the rest of the story.  The color white is very peculiar; Though it seems like a color, it really isn’t.  When you see something that is white it is automatically noted in your brain as something plain and yet it seems to symbolize a lot more then one initially realizes.  To me, white symbolizes individuality and freedom.  Even though it is blank and plain, that is the beauty of it.  It gives one the freedom to do whatever you want with it.  It is like a blank slate, everyone starts out with the same white slate, but it is your decision on how you color and shape it.  Moby Dick is freedom.  Moby Dick is America?  Ahab is not hunting whales, he is hunting ideas.  Regardless, I’m still not quite sure what Ahab is actually supposed to be.   Anyway that was some deep stuff.

These chapters are a big point in the plot and show a lot about how the rest of the story is going to unfold.  Finally, after 35 chapters, the actual plot of the story is set into motion.  Captain Ahab does not seem to be as bad as many put him out to be and I feel that he is no different then any other person on the ship.  Ahab’s attitude is characterized by competition within his life; being an experianced whaling captain, Ahab has seen many things out at sea and feels like he can take on anything.  Once he meets Moby Dick, and essentially fails, his psyche is pushed to the brink and yearns for redemption.  His obsession with the whale is to a point at which he is willing to sacrifice anything to accomplish his goal.  He puts his money, respect, and credibility on the line just to exact revenge on an animal which knows no better.  Ahab is putting his life on the line for this cause, but if/when he does accomplish this goal what is to become of him?  He will have completed his life’s goal and thus will be left living a life with no meaning.  All-in-all, if he gets Moby Dick or not, Ahab is doomed to destruction due to this obession.

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.