IF I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of so outlandish an individual as Queequeg circulating among the polite society of a civilized town, that astonishment soon departed upon taking my first daylight stroll through the streets of New Bedford.
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A mountain range in Vermont
Feegeeans, Tongatobooarrs, Erromanggoans, Pannangians, and Brighggians
Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 6: The Street)
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A maritime district in East London, England
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A term for sailors from the Indian subcontinent
Yes, here were a set of sea-dogs, many of whom without the slightest bashfulness had boarded great whales on the high seas—entire strangers to them—and duelled them dead without winking; and yet, here they sat at a social breakfast table—all of the same calling, all of kindred tastes—looking round as sheepishly at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the Green Mountains. A curious sight; these bashful bears, these timid warrior whalemen!
Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 5: Breakfast)
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Someone say something!
We will not speak of all Queequeg's peculiarities here; how he eschewed coffee and hot rolls, and applied his undivided attention to beefsteaks, done rare. Enough, that when breakfast was over he withdrew like the rest into the public room, lighted his tomahawk-pipe, and was sitting there quietly digesting and smoking with his inseparable hat on, when I sallied out for a stroll.
Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 5: Breakfast)
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But THAT was certainly very coolly done by him, and every one knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly.
Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 5: Breakfast)
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which, barred with various tints, seemed like the Andes' western slope, to show forth in one array, contrasting climates, zone by zone.
Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 5: Breakfast)
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no two parts of which were of one precise shade
Herman Melville – Moby-Dick (Chap. 4: The Counterpane)
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The variety of skin tones on Queequeg’s arm underscores his symbolic status as a sort of “every-brown-man.” We will learn later that he hails from the fictional South Pacific island Rokovoko (or Kokovoko), but Ishmael associates him with a range of non-white cultures. In chapter 3 we saw him smoking a “Tomohawk” pipe and praying to an idol “the exact color of a three days old Congo baby,” descriptions that connect him with African and Native American peoples. Later, Ishmael will refer to part of his religious duties as his “Ramadan.”
The brown-every-man works in two ways. At the level of comedy, it seems to be a device for making racist jokes, but the deeper humor is Ishmael’s ignorance–his casual conflation of all non-white cultures. As a critique of racism, Queequeg’s every-brown-man status means that his nobility represents the nobility of all non-white people, not just cannibals from the South Pacific.
Melville’s (Ishmael’s?) intentions vis-a-vis Queequeg intentions seem “noble,” but it’s hard not to cringe at the “noble savagery” of it all. Queequeg becomes Ishmael’s closest friend in Moby Dick, but he is never accorded the right to be a particular person from a particular place.
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