NCHS AP English Language

#3 Numinous

In chapter 4, Ishmael recounts how as a child he felt a supernatural hand placed on his, and this experience has been haunting him, or at least still with him, all of his life. The numinous experience he has the first night at the Spouter Inn with Queequeg also haunted him until he realized it was actually a human hand. The difference between the childhood numinous and his adulthood “numinous” is that when Queequeg rolled over, Ishmael did not give up trying to figure out what touched him. He realized that it was indeed Queequeg’s hand and after that he persevered and got to know the mysterious “savage.” After befriending Queequeg, Ishmael discovered that he was not so barbaric or scary after all, but instead friendly and loyal. Ishmael thinks about his childhood flashback still, but he did not try to understand just exactly how that hand touched him, but is just haunted by it. The implications of his numinous experience are that he is still freaked out by things he can not control. It is implied that because the numinous represents the revelation of grace, Ishmael needed some comfort and reassurance. Queequeg, like stated earlier, gives Ishmael the comfort of knowing he is protected. He can not explain his numinous experience in rational language, but he knows that it happened, and the experience with Queequeg parallels it and makes it more real for his life.

posted by Caroline Ward @ 9:18 AM