So far I have read up to page 286 in Moby Dick and I haven’t read any of the Mathiesen handout yet. I wanted to start out by writing about the encounter between Fleece and Stubb on page 237. It was almost painful to read because Stubb treated the old, tired cook so poorly. First Stubb gets mad at the cook for not cooking the whale steak right, and he therefore wakes him up and makes him preach to the sharks. This encounter stood out to me because it was really the first time in this novel where one character is being truly mean to the other character. Stubb doesn’t strike me as a mean person. In fact, he’s the jolly nihilist who thinks the world is one big joke. Therefore, I think that this is just Stubb’s way of amusing himself. At one point Fleece calls Stubb “Massa Stubb” on page 238. I’m not sure if it’s common for the mates to be referred to as Master, but to me it seemed liked the Fleece’s reference to Stubb as master was racially motivated. I say this because at one point earlier in the novel, Ishmael talks about how he wouldn’t want to hold a high office on a boat such as a mate or a cook because he doesn’t like the power. Ishmael makes it clear that cooks are officers on whaling ships, which is why it would make no sense for one officer to call another officer master. The fact that Fleece calls Stubb “Massa Stubb” is interesting because for the past 240 pages it seems as if port-towns, such as Nantucket, and whaling ships were much progressive in the way that foreigners, white Americans, and people of color interacted, however, in the encounter between Stubb and Fleece, the reader sees a hint of the racism, evident on the mainland. However, on page 252, the racial tolerance of whale ships is again evident. Ishmael talks about his brotherhood with Queequeg because a monkey rope attached him and Queequeg as Queequeg stood on top of the whale. On most ships the person on the whale isn’t attached by a rope to a person on the ship, however, on the Pequod, Stubb was the one who forced Ishmael to be attached to Queequeg so that Ishmael’s life depended on Queequeg. This shows how Stubb values the life of black crewmembers as much as those of white crewmembers. Also, on page 257, Stubb gets furious with the steward when he gives Queequeg ginger instead of an alcoholic beverage because he thinks Queequeg is deserving of a true reward. In performing these two acts Stubb shows that he is not racist, and that he cares for all of his crewmates, regardless of their race. This makes me think that the mean behavior he displayed towards Fleece wasn’t as racially motivated as I originally thought. This also makes me question whether Fleece was required to call Stubb “Massa Stubb” or whether he just does that because he’s used to referring to all white people in that manner.
There was an interesting passage on page 242, where Melville talks about cannibals and how it’s more tolerable for famished people from Fejee to eat missionaries than for westerners to eat Foie gras. Melville shows again how different he is from most people of his time period, in defending cannibalism to a certain degree. It’s also interesting that Melville is defending cannibalism after he was captured by a group of cannibals. It would be really interesting to learn what went on during Melville’s detainment because we could then see what shaped his views on cannibalism.
I also just wanted to point out a great line on page 282. Melville writes, “For all his [the whale] old age, and his one arm, and his blind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness to all”. I loved this line because it sums up the bigger picture of whaling. It’s weird how Melville describes whaling in such a bad light because he is a staunch advocate of whaling, and he continually sticks up for it throughout the book. This line really contradicts much of what Melville has previously said about whaling.
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