Moby Dick Chapters 21-40
Chapters 21-40
The day the ship is to set sail, Ishmael and Queequeg make their way to the ship well before sunrise, they are yet again accosted on their way by Elijah, whose ranting, Ishmael fails to understand. Aboard the ship, they discover a sleeping rigger, and he informs them that the ship is set to sail today since Captain Ahab had come aboard the previous night. A noise on the deck indicates the presence of the Starbuck, the first mate, and the rigger rushes to the deck and is followed by both Ishmael and Queequeg. By noon, the anchor is lifted and the ship begins to move out into the ocean, piloted for now by Captain Bildad who remains on board along with Captain Peleg, while Captain Ahab remains out of sight. Once the ship is clear in the water, both Peleg and Bildad are rather sad about leaving the ship before it sets out on its long voyage. Both of them make a quick trip to captain Ahab and climb off the ship into a boat.
Starbuck is a thin man, who wishes to have no man on his ship that doesn't fear a whale. Starbuck has a wife and a young child, he has lost both his brother and father to whaling, but continues to whale. He believes that courage is as much a staple on the ship as water and bread, and should as such be as judiciously spent as the other two.
Stubbs, the second mate is ever calm and collected. Even when fighting the whales, he quietly hums to himself and goes about the business of fighting the leviathan. Flask is the third mate, and he is uncaringly unafraid of the whales and seems to think of them as rats of the ocean. He is determined to kill all whales that he comes across. The three mates, Starbuck, Stubbs, and Flask command the three boats of the ship during an encounter with a whale, they are accompanied by harpooners. Queequeg is selected as the harpooner for Starbuck, while the harpooner for Stubbs is a man named Tashtego, and is a native American. Flask's harpooner is Daggoo, a black man from Africa that willingly boarded a whaling ship. Most other members of the crew are from wide and disparate places, the islanders making the best whalers of them all.
Ahab doesn't come out of the cabin for many days, his mates continue to operate the craft, and their presence gives Ishmael much confidence just as Ahab's absence makes him think of the incoherent ramblings of Elijah. As the ship descends the latitudes and leaves behind the winter of the northern hemisphere, Ahab makes his first appearance outside the cabin. Ishmael sees him standing with his ivory leg stuck in a hole made on the deck for the purpose, and notes no sign of sickness or any hint of ongoing recovery. Ahab begins to come onto the deck daily but needs to do little as his skilled mates care for the operations of the whaling vessel.
Ahab spends most of his time on the deck and only retreats temporarily to the cabin, the lovely weather of the sea makes him turn inward, and one quiet night he finds himself walking on the deck. Stubbs makes his way to the deck and suggests that Ahab stuff his ivory leg with some soft cloth to muffle the sound, but Ahab hates the suggestion but concedes that he had forgotten that the sailors were sleeping below. He calls Stubbs a dog and tells him to return to his kennel, and Stubbs is offended by the tone but when he attempts to correct Ahab, the captain becomes nearly violent and marches towards Stubbs with such violence that Stubbs backs away. Stubbs retreats downstairs but is very disturbed by the behavior of his captain, he goes back to sleep with the hope that the captain may be more amenable during the day.
On the deck, Ahab sits on a stool of ivory and smokes his pipe, and has a moment of realization in which he recognizes that he no longer enjoys smoking the pipe and throws it into the sea. The next morning, Stubbs comes on deck and finds Flask on the deck, Stubbs informs him of a strange dream he had in which Ahab kicked him with his ivory leg, then turned into a pyramid when Stubbs tried to retaliate. He was then stopped from kicking the pyramid by a humped man that claimed Ahab was a great man. Flask believes the dream to be a foolish one, and Stubbs asks Flask to be careful in dealing with Ahab. Just then Ahab, yells that there are whales about and anyone who sights a white one should sound the alert.
Ishmael talks about the unique position of the harpooner class on the whaling ships and its place in the hierarchy. In the old Dutch Fishery, the command of the whaling was given to the Specksnyder, a harpooner, while the captain was in command of navigation and management of the ship. In the American fishery, the chief harpooner was only an officer that lodged on the aft part of the ship separate from the other sailors.
Ishmael discusses the rituals around the meals in the captain's cabin aboard the Pequod. Dough-Boy, the steward, informs Ahab that the meal is prepared, Ahab calls to Starbuck, who calls to Stubbs, and who finally calls to Flask. They proceed to the cabin for their meals in the same order and leave in the inverted order. The meals are formal, involve little to no discussion, and have a somewhat royal air to them. Once the Captain and the mates have dined, the table is cleared and set afresh for the benefit of the harpooners, who are as informal in their meals as the captain and mates are formal in theirs. The harpooners eat in abundance and bully the steward when he fails to serve them quick enough.
Ishmael like all the other sailors on the ship must spend a considerable amount of his time on the masthead. Mastheads are manned by sailors in turn from sunset to sundown, throughout the voyage of the ship to ensure none of the nearby whales may go unnoticed.
One evening Ahab asks Starbuck to assemble all the crew of the whaleship, and when they have all arrived he offers a reward to anyone who sights a white whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw. His description of the whale triggers all the harpooners, Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg, who name him Moby Dick, and give Ahab other descriptions of the whale. Starbuck asks Ahab if it had been Moby Dick that had caused Ahab to lose his leg. Ahab confirms the same and tells the whole crew that his sole aim for this ship was the killing of Moby Dick. While most of the crew are enthused by this, Starbuck seems to believe that it is blasphemous to enact revenge on an unthinking animal like Moby Dick. Ahab is insistent and wears down Starbuck's apprehensions, and performs a ritual with all the mariners standing in a circle and drinking grog. He swears them all to the death of Moby Dick, and concludes it with a chilling statement, “God hunt us all if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!”
Starbuck stands between the reveling crew members in the fore and the brooding Ahab on the aft. He curses his fate and feels he is bound to an impious mission, although he can observe that Ahab is stricken by deep grief that may have laid Starbuck himself low.
Stubbs just laughs at the queer situation, but he empathizes with Starbuck. He feels that Starbuck's interaction with Ahab affected Starbuck just as Stubb's recent interaction with the captain. The sailors sing songs and continue drinking. The weather worsens but the sailors have faith in the mate that steers the ship, and the captain on whose direction the mate operates.
Analysis
The issue of relations between the races is examined in more detail as the author details the hierarchy aboard the vessel. The ship functions as a more egalitarian model of society where skill instead of race is the chief defining feature of the sailors. However, the officer corps of the Pequod is distinctly American caucasian, an arrangement in which the white American acts as the 'brain' while the other races serve as 'muscle'.
The nature of the chapters also begins to change and to appear more like a play, this can be seen as a way for the author to heighten the sense of drama aboard the Pequod. The soliloquy-like monologues of both Ahab and Starbuck are very reminiscent of Shakespeare, wherein the characters are allowed to articulate their viewpoints to the reader in an eloquent manner.
Ahab's desire to kill the whale is also indicated in these chapters as being more than a simple desire to exact revenge on the beast that took his leg. His examination of the deeper meaning behind the events that have transpired indicates an intelligent and philosophical character. At the same time, the narrative reveals a delusional and insane side to the charismatic Captain.
