NCHS AP English Language

Ch. 4 and the Numinous (Chris Fitzer and Dani Lewis)

In this chapter, Ishmael expresses the feeling of a hovering phantom that covers him during a time of rest when his step-mother sent him away. This flashback describes a similar feeling to which he felt with Queequeg wrapping his arms around him in bed. In his childhood, his stepmother sent him to his room because of the trouble he was causing. It says he slept for sixteen hours. He awoke to the feeling that a spirit or phantom was embracing him. This was a numinous. The numinous is a spiritual or supernatural feeling that Rudolph Otto claims to be a non-rational mysterious meeting of the divine. This idea is commonly associated with the feeling of unworthiness, such as Ishmael felt. This feeling of uncleanliness is covered and pacified by the Numinous. It is a sensation of the revelation of grace. The flashback told by Ishmeal depicts a time when he felt unworthy and needed the phantom to hold and embrace him. This titillation of the Numinous comforted him in this time of doubt. Similarly, the embrace of Queequeg gave him a feeling like this soothing phantom. He also compares the encompassing hold of Queequeg to the warm embrace of a bridegroom to his wife. In the same sense a spouse uses a hug to comfort his or her significant other to releave them of this feeling of unworthiness and doubt.
The idea of Numinous is also compared to the feeling of fascination with the unknown. In his room as a child Ishmael became fascinated with this feeling caused by a Numinous. He is afraid that if he moves in bed he will lose this sensation, this nonphysical hand that lies upon his. Comparingly Ishmael is fascinated and interested in Queequeg and the differences between their cultures and ways of life. He is fine with the embrace of another man in bed because he feels that is is the same comforting hug of a Numinous.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 2:01 PM