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Moby Dick in 50 Objects

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Moby Dick in 50 Objects Dear Reader, Reading Moby-Dick is an adventure. The narrative takes you to MOBY DICK the deepest and strangest recesses of the human mind and through the daily life of a nineteenth-century whaleman. You’re in for a wild—sometimes dull, and other times queer—ride. Like any good adventure, a map will help you on your journey. IN These fifty objects will help you decode the literary symbolism of Moby Dick, a novel laden with meaningful images and motifs. This guidebook will also help animate the nineteenth-century context in which the novel emerged. The world looked different to Herman Melville in the nineteenth-century, and these objects 50 OBJECTS will help you better understand the text within its context. Of course, your best guide to Moby-Dick—whether it’s your first, second, or fifth read—is your own mind. Let the novel challenge A GUIDE THROUGH THE GREAT, WEIRD, AND LONG you, bore you, and take you outside of yourself. AMERICAN CLASSIC Good luck and bon voyage! BY Josh Ameen, Jacob Beaudoin, Laura Byrd, Isabelle Carter, Austin Cederquist, Isabella Conner, Sam Cooper, Tori Corr, Marissa Cuggino, Gianna Delaney, Kyle Erickson, Taylor Galusha, Jackie Ireland, Mathew Lannon, Melissa Lawson, Emma Leaden, Kathryn Mallon, Caroline May, Emily Nichols, Conrrad Ortega, Daniel Proulx, Dan Roussel, Krista Sbordone, Dustin Smart, Bobby Tolan, Sarah Tripp, Brianna Wickard, & Dr. Christy Pottroff A carpet bag is specifically made for travelling and is usually made out of the same material as an oriental rug. It was perfect for people who did not want to carry enough luggage that would require a heavier trunk. They also could be unfolded quite easily so that they could be used as a blanket in a pinch. Ishmael packs his carpet back at the beginning of the book, kicking off the long journey ahead of him. I stuffed a shirt or two into my old carpet-bag, tucked it under my arm, and started for Cape Horn and the Pacific. (Chapter 2: “The Carpet-Bag”) The Spouter Inn is where Ishmael first COMFORTS FOR meets Queequeg (well, in a bed in the Spouter!). Without this fortuitous meeting, there would be no story. The quirkiness of the inn sets up the rest of the story to have an offbeat feel. The Spouter is a little rundown and it doesn’t have enough beds for each of its visitors. Sailors carouse in the dining room of this LANDSMEN place named after the spouter whale. Entering the gable-ended Spouter Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old fashioned wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft. (Chapter 3: “The Spouter Inn”) In New Bedford, Ishmael attends a service at the Whaleman’s chapel where he hears Father Mapple gives a sermon about Jonah and the Whale. The pulpit is the raised platform where the chaplain gives his sermon. Unlike most pulpits, Father Mapple’s resembles the prow of a ship. It has no stairs but instead it has a side ladder which has red worsted ropes that were donated by a member of the congregation What could be more full of meaning?—for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds. Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow. (Chapter 8: “The Pulpit”) Melville devotes an entire chapter to chowder. This flavorful and rich, sustainable food is a delicacy for Ishmael and Queequeg. During their stay at Try-Pots, they eat Nantucket is located off the as much chowder as they possibly can. In contrast, southeast coast of Martha’s Vineyard in the ship food was not exceptionally plentiful and Massachusetts. In the 18th century, the whaling the mates hungry was apparent as their “appetites industry in Nantucket was booming as people [were] sharpened by the frosty voyage.” continued to demand larger quantities of whale oil. In Moby Dick, Ishmael heads to Nantucket to start his journey as a whaler, but he discovers Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, that Nantucket feels like the edge of the world, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt. exciting, isolated, and full of possibility. Chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till you began to look for Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what real corner of the world it occupies; how it fish-bones coming through your clothes! (Chapter 15: “Chowder”) stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddy-stone lighthouse…Nantucket is no Illinois. (Chapter 14: “Nantucket”) Marble Tablet Memorials line the walls of the Whaleman’s Chapel in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a special place where many sailors go before they start a voyage. The Tablets honor sailors who passed away at sea, and, early in the novel, speak to the perils of a nineteenth-century whaling expedition. Ishmael spends a lot of time in this chapel and uses the tablets to acknowledge how difficult it must be to lose a family member at sea because their bodies are never recovered. Each silent worshipper seemed purposely sitting apart from the other, as if each silent grief were insular and incommunicable. The chaplain had not yet arrived; and there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders, masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit. (Chapter 7: “The Chapel”) Queequeg cuts a striking figure in any room—he’s big, strong, imposing, and covered entirely in tattoos. Ishmael is intrigued by them, and tries to uncover their secret meaning. But Queequeg himself does not know the meaning of his tattoos, leaving them an absolute mystery to the reader. The fact that all of the ink on his skin was done by such a wise man from Rokovoko adds to the overall mystery of Queequeg and his tattoos. [his tattoos] had been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with QUEEQUEG the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last. (Chapter 110: “Queequeg in His Coffin”). OR THE KING OF ROKOVOKO Queequeg’s tomahawk-pipe is a combination between a classic tomahawk, or a single-handed ax, and a smoking pipe. Not all tomahawks were also pipes, but some were. In this way it combines something classically “savage” (a tomahawk) with an everyday device (a pipe) used by more “civilized” men such as the second mate, Stubb. Melville also contrasts the violent nature of the device with its soothing capabilities. This can be seen as Melville speaking to cultural norms. By combining the “savage” and everyday and the violent yet soothing, Melville warps common view on what qualifies as “savage” and therefore comments on the word’s hypocritical nature. He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe, which, it seemed had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed his soul. (Chapter 21: “Going Aboard”). Queequg worships a small wooden statue named Yojo. During Ramadan, he fasts in silence with Yojo atop his head; A beaver hat is throughout the year, he dedicates offerings of food for the figure. malleable and weather- In turn, Yojo helps him make important decisions like resistant, and therefore popular instructing Queequeg to follow Ishmael’s lead on selecting the among sailors. Beaver hats next whaling voyage to join. could be a variety of shapes and fashions, and were worn by both men and women because In many things, Queequeg placed great confidence in the excellence of Yojo's judgment and people thought they were surprising forecast of things; and cherished Yojo with considerable esteem, as a rather good sort of god, who perhaps meant well enough upon the whole, but in all cases did not popular and fashionable. succeed in his benevolent designs. (Chapter 16: “The Ship”) Queequeg wears a tall beaver hat, which likely was similar to a top hat or a navy-style hat. Rokovoko, or sometimes Kokovoko, is Queequeg’s home. In Rokovoko, Queequeg is from a noble family; his father is the kind and his uncle a high priest. As a child, Queequeg wanted “Look there! that chap strutting round to leave his island to see more of the world. His travels the corner. He wears a beaver hat and among Christians, however, have made him unfit to be swallow-tailed coat, girdled with a a pagan king. sailor-belt and sheath-knife.” Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the (Chapter 6: “The Street”) West and South. It is not down on any map; true places never are.
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