Response Journal Week 1- Gabriel

The first thing that struck me about the first few chapters we read was Melville’s sense of humor. I found myself laughing out loud when I was reading on the bus, especially during the scene where Ishmael is thinking about the potential consequences of sleeping in a bed with Queequeg, and the scene where Ishmael almost dies of fear after seeing Queequeg perform his pagan rituals. I think that the hilarity of this book stems from the hypothetical situations Ishmael creates, and from the ridiculous assumptions he makes about things. I also found Queequeg to be amusing, but I don’t think that a person from the 1800’s would find Queequeg to be amusing in the same way that I did. I found his character to be very stereotypical, because of the way he acted and talked, so at first it seemed like Melville was racist in adding a character like Queequeg. Ishmael accepts him though and they become good friends very quickly, so my views on Melville’s perceptions on race changed quickly. I was shocked that on page 57, Ishmael who claims to be a good Christian performs a pagan ritual with Queequeg and then rationalizes it. He claims that doing this he is merely being a good human and a good friend. I therefore wasn’t surprised to read the footnote, which said that Melville’s career was for the most part ruined, because of his defiance of the religious press.

Another thing that shocked me was how Queequeg had his arm around Ishmael while they were sleeping in the same bed. I at first didn’t think much of it because I thought it could have been an innocent mistake but I later realized that this scene alluded to the fact that they could have sex the night before. On page 57 Ishmael also compares himself and Quequeeg to a cosy-loving pair. I was surprised at how homoerotic Moby Dick was in the first 30 pages. I just wasn’t expecting a book that was written over 100 year’s ago to allude to homosexual relationships between two of its main characters.

I noticed that Melville uses some very interesting writing techniques. For instance he tends to give people and objects biblical names. He therefore calls the innkeeper Jonah, and the wind Euroclydon. Melville also tends to incorporate large portions of his own life into the story, which can be deduced from reading the notes.