NCHS AP English Language

The Coffin- Shimarah Mehrotra

When Queequeg comes down with a common fever, he imagines the worst possible outcome- death. At the thought of this, he asks for a coffin to be made for him and "shuddered at the thought of being buried in his hammock" or tossed out to sea for sharks to devour as was the usual sea- custom. Upon Queequeg's request, the carpenter measured him for the coffin's dimensions. After it is made especially for him, it is brought to Queequeg and he lays in it while Pip sobs at the thought of Queequeg's death. Queequeg was unaffected by the displays of grief and lay quietly until he was laid back onto his hammock.
Content with the death arrangements made, Queequeg suddenly decided it was not his time to die and so he did not die at that moment. According to him, a man's life was in his own hands and it was his choice as to whether or not he would live or die.
Queequeg then spent most of his time carving pictures and recreations of the "twisted tattooing" on his body into the coffin, almost as if to make the coffin his own and, therefore in a way, himself.
After the ship had sank and Ishmael floated alone in the ocean waiting for salvation, he relied on Queequeg's coffin for support. Ironically, the thing that was intended for Queequeg's lifeless body kept Ishmael alive and saved him from the fate that Queequeg thought his fever would fulfill. Since Queequeg had made the coffin hiw own and through his own image, Queequeg saved Ishmael from his demise.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 10:37 PM