Cannibalism and the Cyclical Nature of Life in Moby Dick

CANNIBALISM AND THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF LIFE



     Throughout Moby Dick the imagery of circles convey's Melville's belief in the cyclical

nature of "life." This cycle depends equally upon life and death, and Melville recognizes

their interweavings, their "loomings" as he calls them. The images of circles in Moby Dick

all relate to the mysterious connections between physical life and death, and the question

of the soul. Following in the footsteps of Pip, Ishmael eventually finds himself in the vortex

of enlightenment and attempts to share with us his acquired wisdom.



     In the chapter "The Shark Massacre," we find an image of cyclical life-death that coincides

with an image later introduced.  As the whalers on the Pequod stab at the sharks to protect

their killed whale, they cut open the sharks, which leads them into an even wilder frenzy:

"They viciously snapped, not only at each other's disembowelments, but like flexible bows,

bent round, and bit their own; till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again by 

the same mouth..."(p.395) This vicious scene of bloody death is likened to another scene,

this one of birth, by the similar image of a bent bow: "....tail to head, and all ready for the 

final spring, the unborn whale lies bent like a Tartar's bow(p.498)."  This circular image of a

bent bow conveys life and death and shows their interconnection.



     The birthing scene mentioned above takes place within the calm center of the concentric

rings of whales in "The Grand Armada." The Pequod, seeing a literal goldmine of wealth,

finds itself the prey of another breed of hunters; pirates. The Pequod "...both chasing and

being chased...(p.491)" finds itself in the cycle of life: both hunter and hunted. Escaping from

pirates, the whaling boat of Starbuck, Queequeg, and Ishamael glide into a dead calm,

in the center of the midst of countless whales. From this central point radiates life; as one

moves out from the center, one encounters the young bull males, and finally the oldest

and the injured whales at the furthest perimeters. The females exist at the heart of the

circle, supplying new life and continuing the cycle of birth.



     As a castaway, Pip experiences a frightening enlightenment that leaves him incompre

-hensible to all. The opposite of monomaniac Ahab, Pip begins to see all: "...Pip's ringed

horizon began to expand around him miserably (p.530)." This image of an infinite, ringed

horizon is indeed terrifying; Pip sees too much at once and loses touch with mortal reality.

Ishael experiences a like abandonment in the conclusion of the novel and is himself a

castaway, doomed to wander earth with unpeakable visions.



     Melville mentions a philosophy of circular rebirth, metempsychosis, and later in "The

Glider" chapter, elaborates on his personal beliefs:  "Once gone through, we trace the round

again; and are infants, boys, men, and Ifs eternally (p.624)." This is reminiscent of the

of the outward progression in age in "The Grand Armada" chapter. The oldest whales, those

too mysterious to put a finger on, are the "Ifs:" the ungraspable phantoms.  Later in this

narrative passage, Ishmael seemingly wraps up the question of the soul and its connections

with life-death: "Our souls are like those orphans whose unwed mothers die in bearing

them. The secret of our paternity lies in their grave and we must there to learn it (p. 624)."

This passage likens Pip and Ishmael, who through abandonment find Truth,  to "the soul."



    Ahab's mercenary, Fedallah, is killed by a sort of noose, the closing of a circle, and is

doomed to continually follow the whale. The Pequod and its remaining crew also die in the

power of a circle: "...concentric circles seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew...and 

spinning, animate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip

of the Pequod out of sight (p.722)." The suction of the sunken ship draws Ishmael into the

center of the disaster area, where he seems doomed himself. Instead, he is saved by

the coffin life-buoy, and is later picked up by the Rachel, who "...in her retracing search after

her missing children, only found another orphan (p.724)." Ishmael, identified here as an

orphan, is a symbol of the soul, as related in "The Gilder" chapter. The very vortex of death

springs forth life, and he seems the final piece in the puzzle of life, death, and the soul.



     The novel itself acts as a circle; Ishamel jumps back and forth in time as he relates his

story to us. The end of the novel feeds the beginning, like the shark feeding on its own

entrails. The image of circles effectively conveys infinity and the endless cycle of birth

feeding on death.



     The theme of cannibalism gives the novel a sociological message, in addition to its

philosophical messages. Melville views cannibalism as excessive greed and largely condemns

modern Western history as being more savage than any literal cannibalistic acts. The

Pequod serves as a symbol for Western injustices and greed, and as seen in the conclusion

of the book, inevitably devours itself in its monomaniac lust for wealth and power.



     Melville questions the sincerity of Christian doctrine by identifying some of the hypo

-crises. The pious Bildad is seen as a hypocrite when it comes to money: "Don't whale it 

too much a'lord's days, men; but don't miss a fair chance either, that's rejecting Heaven's

good gifts (p. 147)." Ahab allows the Pequod to hunt other whales along the way in the

search for Moby Dick, for as Ishmael points out "...even the high lifted, and chivalric 

Crusaders of old times were not content to traverse two thousand miles of land for their

hold sepulchre, without committing burglaries, picking pockets, and gaining other pious

perquisites along the way (p.285)." So even Ahab, in his monomaniac greed for the White

Whale, will allow the plunder of other whales to gain the crew's favor.



     Not only does he allow the regular hunting of whales, he attaches a prize for the spotting

of his own goal. In nailing the gold coin to the mast, he acts on everyone else's greed; for

all but Starbuck, gold is the ultimate reward. Even the danger of ordinary hunts of whales

seems unreasonably risky to Ishamel, yet he also lets it go: "Oh! My friends, but this is man

killing! Yet this is life (p.547)." Ishmael shows himself to be part of the crowd of humanity,

risking everything for gold and "...the horrible vulturism of earth (p.402)."



     The Pequod, as well as its captain, is identified as being cannibalistic. The ship is inlaid

with whale ivory, and Ahab stalks the whale while walking using a whalebone peg leg. The

Pequod's name is from an Indian tribe destroyed by white settlers, and the ship owners set

up a wigwam on board. These examples show how killed things are used to kill more of

their own kind, "adding insult to injury." The crew of the Pequod even light their way with

the whale's oil, and they canibalistically oil the boat's hull, increasing speed and killing

capacity.



     To Melville, cannibalism is present in all walks of life. He sees it in civilized man: "Long

exile from christendom and civilization inevitably restores man to that condition in which

God placed him, i.e. what is called savagery (p. 358)." The cannibalistic greed of Western man

is seen all over the world, from slave ships, to the Pacific Islands. The lower class of people

are nothing more than the property of the wealthy and powerful: "What are the sinews and

souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish wherof possession is the whole of

the law (p.509) In the violent and inherently dangerous profession of whaling, man feeds on

other men and their labors and suffering, and feeds on himself: "Cannibals? Who is not a 

cannibal (p.393)."



     Like the sharks, who in their greed eat at each other's entrails, the crew and captain of the

Pequod destroy and devour themselves.  Mankind will only recognize its monomaniac greed

"...when they come to fish up this old mast and find a doubloon lodged in it...(p.556)." The

value in the tale is history repeating itself, fulfilling human nature in our self destruction,

and circling the past from a future time, to consume and absorb what can be learned.







F. Bloodgood

10-27-1987

Univ of Kansas

Prof. Schultz