“To produce a mighty book, you have to choose a mighty theme,” says Ishmael in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Melville chose as his theme the Great White Whale and he produced a mighty book.
Moby Dick is a book that is more appreciated than read. It has been analyzed and studied and is taught more than it is enjoyed. There is, no doubt, deep meaning in the white whale and in Captain Ahab’s obsession with it. But I’ll leave that for others to discover. I read it because it is an exciting story of whaling on the high seas during the time of wooden ships and iron men. Don’t fear The Whale. Despite all of the attention from scholars, Moby Dick is fun to read.
Melville gives a detailed picture of life on a 19th century whaler, down to the order of precedence at the captain’s table, where the third mate arrives last, leaves first and leads a life of semi starvation. Melville was not an environmentalist, but he offers an unexpectedly timely defense of whaling for the modern reader, almost succeeding in making it acceptable—at least when whale hunters are using wooden boats and handheld weapons and the whale has a fighting chance. He might be a little too detailed for some tastes in describing the anatomy of the sperm whale and the mechanics of disassembling him, but this is balanced by the humor and excitement.
Melville gets too little credit for being a humorous writer. The opening chapters of Moby Dick, including the unlikely bromace between Ishmael and Queequeg, are some of the finest American humor. And he brings a sailor’s touch in describing the romance, boredom and adventure of sailing under canvas. Take, for instance, Ahab’s pep talk to his crew in chapter 36:
“What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?”
“Sing out for him!”
“Good! And what do ye next, men?”
“Lower away, and after him!”
“And what tune is it ye pull to, men?”
“A dead whale or a stove boat!”
I just love that kind of talk.
Strange bedfellows
Everyone knows the general plot of Moby Dick. The restless Ishmael, wishing to “sail about a little and see the watery part of the world,” signs on to the ill-fated Pequod for a four-year whaling voyage under Capt. Ahab, who is obsessed with the whale that took off his leg on his last voyage. It is so generally known, and Melville gives so many hints of it himself, that I don’t think I am giving anything away in saying that the voyage does not end well.
Ishmael’s unlikely companion is Queequeg, a South Sea Islander whom he meets in the whaling port of New Bedford, Mass., where such cannibals are a common sight. Ishmael is at first a little suspicious of his tattooed companion, but quickly concludes, “It’s just his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin,” and that he is better off sleeping with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.
This is the most American of novels, and the Pequod is a microcosm of the American melting pot. The ship’s harponeers are Queequeg the cannibal, Tashtego, an American Indian, and Daggoo, an African. Half of the sailors are foreign born. But just as in America, the melting is not complete. The captain and officers are all white Americans. Just as in America, the rest of the world provides the labor and white men are in charge.
But I’m beginning to look for meaning, and I promised to avoid that.
No girls allowed
Two women—Mrs. Hosea Hussey, landlady of the Try Pots Inn on Nantucket, and Aunt Charity—make brief appearances in Moby Dick, but they are quickly left behind. The book is about men in a man’s world and romance does not rear its ugly head.
This is just as well, because the book is complex enough without the complications of romance. It is full of biblical and dramatic allusions and Melville shifts abruptly from American tall tales to scenes with theatrical stage directions and Shakespearean soliloquies. This can be disconcerting if the reader isn’t prepared for it, but when you stop asking why and just accept it as part of a sprawling tale, everything moves along at a great pace.
If you are lucky you have not been forced to study and read Moby Dick in school and can come to it fresh and enjoy it. If you did study it, try to forget what you were taught and read it now for pleasure. There are plenty of editions out there and you won’t have trouble finding one at your local library or bookstore.