NCHS AP English Language

Ch.10 analysis - Nathan Sheptock

After watching Queequeg working quietly for some time, Ishmael begins to feel a "melting," as he says, inside, which could symbolize a sort of breaking down of prefabricated thoughts or impressions of those less civilized than people like himself, an new view of those so-called "savages" as, in fact, very much like himself, even better in a sense. The "marriage" could be viewed as a link which from that time on bonded them on a spiritual level, so close now that they would freely offer their lives to one another. This action is the most important in solidifying their friendship within the story. Ishmael is now more accepting of Queequeg's alternate lifestyle, no longer viewing it as an uncivilized one, fit for a heathen, but rather as a somewhat pure, simple one, untainted by the "civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits" which plagues the modern lifestyles of his world today. He is "redeemed, in a sense, by Queequeg in that his pure lifestyle, despite the obvious uncivilized nature which it was fashioned on, has "saved" him from relenting to a deceitful "wolfish" world, which had so far splintered his heart and maddened his hand enough to turn him away from the world, to lose hope it its future. This simple "savage" gave him hope enough to see a possible future for the majority living in his time if they could only take in a part of the pure simplicity with which he lived, and use it to "purify" their own lives so they may find hope also.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 10:30 PM