Gustavo Quintero
December 6, 2007
English 48A
Journal #26 Herman Melville


Quote:
"For all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal. Whats all this fuss I have been making about...(Melville 2334).


Summary:
After Queequeg sees that there is someone is in his bed he begins to flail his axe violently, all the while Ishmael is pleading to Queequeg not to kill him. The old man at the bar is called into the room where he calms Queequeg down who later agrees to let Ishmael share his bed.


Response:
This is the very first scene in which the reader encounters the character of Queequeg. Queequeg is a cannibal who does not believe in the Christian God but rather his own idol. The very first impression of Queequeg is that he is a ravenous, wild, dark and dangerous cannibal. Although the violent axe flailing does not help his case we later read how Queequeg is a completely different person. Queequeg is shown to be a kind man, not the wild cannibal that we first meet. Queequeg reminds me of a group of people that live in the South American rain forest. On the travel channel there is a show titled,"Going Tribal". This show follows a tribe of about 100 people during there daily lives. The show is extremely well produced and filmed. When I first began to watch the show I had the impression that the village members were savages with little intellect. After watching the whole first season you begin to see just how complex there lives are. Ranging from cooking, funerals, property disputes, marriages and even how they spend there spare time. The reason I bring this T.V. show up is that just like I got a false impression of these tribal people, Ishmael also has a false initial impression of Queequeg. Just from reading the selected chapters from "Moby Dick" I can see just how complex Queequeg is.