NCHS AP English Language

Question #7 - Nathan Sheptock

Chapter 42 seeks to illustrate why Moby Dick’s most profound physical characteristic, the whiteness of his complexion, evokes inIshmaell, above all other attributes, a “vague, nameless horror…which at times by its intensity completely overpowered all the rest.” With this belief in mind, he attempts to characterize the true spirit of the whale through various allusions of the color white in nature, history, society, and the unexplainable. These various examples can be characterized in terms of their ability to bring to mind a sense of shear power, strength, and influence; fear; or unexplainable supernaturalism.

Power, strength and influence: the kings of Pegu and Siam, the Austrian empire, Greek mythology, various portrayals of Christianity, the Iroquois religion, the Roman empire, the White, Bloody, and Byward towers, the white prairie horse, white polar bear, and white shark, the Albatross, the white sea and mountains, and the shear white quality of Nature itself.

Fear: the Albino man, the White Squall of the Southern seas, the White Hoods of Ghent, the tall pale man of the Hartz forests, the “white veil of horror and woe” over the city of Lima, the midnight seas of milky whiteness, the shrouded phantom of the whitened waters, or the snow-capped Andes as it looks to the Peruvian natives.

Supernaturalism: The ghosts and phantoms of the Southern seas and milky fog-waters, the “marble pallor” of the dead which appalls the gazer, and the pallid horse upon which Death (as stated in the Book of Revelations) sits.

These three allusions which the whiteness of the whale embodies may seem impossible by many to be able to coexist within a single solitary being. This, above all else, is what appears to mystify and Ishmael Ishmael the most. That one single animal can be granted with so much power, the power to terrify, mystify, and influence wholly all those who merely set eyes on its shear whiteness. Although it may Ishmael Ishmael that Moby Dick has been somehow granted with this awesome influence, it is merely a collection of the values and ideals which individuals throughout time have placed upon the characteristic of the whale’s whiteness. One man’s view of the color might evoke power and majesty, while another’s might evoke only fear. It is in truth, then, that Moby Dick does not embody one single, true aspect, because that one, true aspect can never and will never be known. In better terms, his whiteness embodies and signifies all aspects within the universe which the color itself holds.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 4:27 PM