Moby Dick Religion

At first glance, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick appears to be a novel about whaling. Moby Dick is a novel regarding whaling, yet Melville uses whaling aboard the Pequod as an allegory to illustrate larger themes regarding humanity. Melville’s Moby Dick features a cast of a variety of races and cultures, and Melville’s depiction of the cultures are central to the thematic purposes of the novel. Initially, Melville, through the sailor Ishmael, appears to view people of foreign cultures from a white American perspective by providing condescending attitudes, yet the attitudes toward foreigners and even Christianity begin to change. Melville reverses the traditional associations of foreign savages and white Christians in order to convey that morality,

When Ishmael first meets Queequeg, he immediately comments on his foreign, savage appearance. He makes note of Queequeg’s “dark, purplish, yellow color” with “blackish looking squares” and describes him as a “terrible bedfellow” (34). Furthermore, Ishmael states “It was now quite plain that he must be some abominable savage or other shipped aboard of a whaleman in the South Seas, and so landed in this Christian country” (34). Queequeg’s foreign appearance, indicated by his dark skin and numerous tattoos, leads Ishmael to believe that Queequeg has not only a dreadful appearance, but a dreadful character as well. In addition, Ishmael’s use of “abominable” indicates that Queequeg’s savagery is incredibly loathsome. However, Ishmael’s opinions of the so-called savage begin to change, and he reconsiders associating Queequeg with traditional savage stereotypes. After observing Queequeg’s mannerisms, Ishmael comments “…but, the truth is, these savages have an innate sense of delicacy, say what you will; it is marvelous how essentially polite they are” and “I pay this particular compliment to Queequeg, because he treated me with so much civility and consideration, while I was guilty of great rudeness…” (38). Ishmael characterizes Queequeg as polite and delicate, indicating that he is not simply a brute, and this depiction of Queequeg suggests that

While at the Sprouter-Inn with Queequeg, Ishmael states “…yet I began to feel mysteriously drawn towards him…I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy” (56). The text, through Ishmael, provides criticism of Christianity in a radical way for Melville’s time by suggesting that Christian kindness is artificial and disingenuous. Instead of viewing Christianity as the moral absolute to judge other cultures, Melville breaks from a fundamental Christian mindset and asserts that Christianity may not be a moral paragon by highlighting its artificiality. Furthermore, Ishmael recognizes the hypocrisy of Christianity. While observing Queequeg’s wood idol, Ishmael comments, “How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood?… And what is the will of God?—to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me…Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship” (57). In order to follow the will of God, Ishmael believes that people must follow the “Golden Rule” of Christianity, that is, to do unto others what you would have them do unto you. Ishmael recognizes that Christians typically reject participating in the cultural