Response Journal Week 8- Gabriel

I just read up to page 347 and I read Structure and The Levels Beyond from The Mathiesen handout. I would like to start out by writing about the chapter from Moby Dick titled Castaway. In this chapter Pip becomes a replacement oarsmen for one of the harpooning vessel, and he falls out of the boat and Stubb leaves him stranded. The Pequod luckily picks him up after a great amount of time elapses. This chapter really shows the grim side of whaling and Melville gives a really grim, tragic view of human nature. Throughout Moby Dick, it seems as if there is a certain camaraderie between crewmembers, and we even get to see a close brotherly bond formed between Queequeg and Ishmael. For the most part, I got the feeling that Melville viewed humans rather positively, however, in Castaway we see Stubb acting unforgivably. It is true that Pip was warned that he wouldn’t be saved if he jumped out of the ship, but, regardless of this, Stubb shows a dark side. Melville writes “Stubb indirectly hinted, that though man loves his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence” (321). Stubb decided to go after a whale and make money rather than save a fellow human being. He assumed that another boat would eventually pick Pip up, but that was not a safe assumption to make. After this incident Pip becomes scarred, and it becomes evident that Stubb has affected his mental health. The worst part is that Stubb doesn’t seem to feel any remorse. I’m not sure if this is because Pip is a lowly black crewmember or if Stubb is actually a sociopath.
I also just wanted to point out the line on 327 having to do with the fire of the try-works because it’s a great line. Melville writes, “Then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul’ (327). I just loved the description of the boat, and the descriptions really help create a sense of the atmosphere on the ship. I thought the description gave off a very intense yet hypnotic vibe. This description reminds of the description of the ship when Ahab first reveals his intentions of killing Moby Dick to the crewmembers, because there was a similar hypnotic atmosphere.
I really enjoyed reading The Level Beyond because it talks about some of Melville’s methods of portraying things. Mathiesen first talks about how Melville always compares Moby Dick and Ahab to something greater than themselves. He compares them to grand things, making them seem very magnified. In this chapter Mathiesen also talks about how Melville saw a connection between beauty and strength and how Melville mastered how to make beauty out of natural strength. I didn’t quite understand what this meant however. Mathiesen also talks about how Melville is very Shakespearean, Homeric, and biblical, but that he is in fact more Homeric and biblical than he is Shakespearean. I had noticed connections between Shakespeare, Homer, and Melville, and I think it’s especially cool because I have read both Shakespeare and Homer this year in school.