| Series: | Moby Dick |
| Creator: | Herman Melville |
| Gender: | Male |
| Nationality: | South Pacific Islander |
Queequeg is a character in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by American author Herman Melville. The story outlines his royal, Polynesian descent, as well as his desire to "visit Christendom" that led him to leave his homeland.[1] Queequeg is visually distinguished by his striking facial tattoos and tan skin. Ishmael encounters Queequeg in Chapter Four and they become unlikely friends. Once aboard the whaling ship the Pequod, Queequeg becomes the harpooner for the mate Starbuck.
Queequeg is native to the fictional island of Kokovoko (also known as Rokovoko), an "island far away to the West and South", or more specifically in the South Pacific Ocean. He was the son of High Chief, King as well various other well-respected individuals of his community. Queequeg's culture is referenced to be cannibalistic. The narration of the book makes it clear that cannibalism was not universally accepted at this time.
In the novel, Queequeg is described as having an "ambitious soul" who had a strong "desire to visit Christendom". Queequeg left home when he snuck onto a Sag Harbor ship that was passing by his father's land. At first rejected by the whaler that landed on his island, he skillfully jumped from a canoe and clamped to the side of the boat as it was leaving for the open sea, at which point the captain relented. He was trained as a whaleman during this time and continued in this profession going forward.
Despite his interest in "Christendom", Queequeg practiced a pagan religion. Queequeg practices a form of animism using a small idol named Yojo, for whom he builds small ceremonial fires. As part of his religion, he practices a prolonged period of fasting and silence (which Ishmael calls his "Ramadan"). In chapter seventeen, Queequeg locks himself in his room in Nantucket to keep his fast and silence. Even after Ishmael enters the room, Queequeg is unbothered and does not acknowledge Ishmael's presence.
In her book, Tattooing the World, author Juniper Ellis contemplates the significance of Queequeg's face and bodily markings. Ellis claims that Melville was inspired by a representation of the Māori Chief Te Pēhi Kupe in George Lillie Craik's book, The New Zealanders. Records indicate that Melville's encounter with Craik's book in 1850 caused him to replace Bulkington (the originally intended companion of Ishmael) with a new character: Queequeg.[2]
While the descriptions of Queequeg's tattoos are dissimilar to those of the Māori Chief, Ellis claims that Melville took inspiration from Te Pēhi Kupe. The parallels and distinctions between his source of inspiration are important to Ellis's interpretation of Queequeg. Although they are similar, Queequeg's tattoos are described in the text as more geometric and square-shaped than the Māori tattoos that are often "rounded into spirals". Because the historical evidence points to Craik's book as an inspiration for Melville, Ellis argues that these tattoos similarly indicate genealogy, family, and individual identities. Additionally, she believes that these parallels create a stronger link between Queequeg and Pacific origin cultures.
Queequeg and Ishmael first meet in New Bedford, Massachusetts when Ishmael and he are placed in the same room of The Spouter-Inn. At this moment, Queequeg had just returned from a whaling voyage and Ishmael was staying the night on the way towards a voyage as well. Queequeg returns late to the inn, not knowing that Ishmael has been booked into the same room with him. Ishmael is at first afraid of this unfamiliar person who he must share a bed with, however, he keeps an open mind. He quickly comes to the conclusion that "for all his tattooings he [Queequeg] was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal."
Chapter Four begins with Queequeg's arm "thrown over" Ishmael in his sleep. This scene is an abrupt, striking contrast to the previous chapter in which Queequeg threatens to kill Ishmael. Ishmael states that "You had almost thought I had been his wife." Soon after, in Chapter 10, Queequeg proclaims that they are married, which in his country implies that they are "bosom friends".
Steven B. Herrmann analyzes this relationship in his journal article "Melville's Portrait of Same-Sex Marriage in Moby-Dick." Herrmann believes that the "Ishmael-Queequeg 'marriage'...is the first portrait of same-sex marriage in American literature."[3] He sees the physical affection between the two characters as Melville moving beyond the "cultural imprints of homophobia" in literature. Regardless of Herrmann's beliefs, it cannot be confirmed whether Melville intended for this to be a homosexual relationship; Melville leaves this interpretation to the reader.
Toward the end of the novel Queequeg falls ill and is presumed to die. In chapter 110, Queequeg expresses his desire to not be buried in his hammock, "according to the usual sea-custom", but rather that a canoe-like coffin be made for him when he dies. Sickness does not overtake Queequeg. While he recovers from his illness, he does die by other means in the end. He does not survive the Pequod's wreck as Ishmael is the only survivor. Still, he is ultimately responsible for saving Ishmael's life from beyond the grave. Ishmael survives the wreck by clinging to the coffin that had been made for Queequeg.
Michael C. Berthold's journal article titled "Moby-Dick and American Slave Narrative" from the Massachusetts Review outline's one idea regarding the symbolic meaning of Queeqeug's coffin.[4] When Queequeg heals and is no longer presumed to die in chapter 110, the book mentions how he spent many hours "carving the lid with all manner of grotesque figures and drawings…to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on his body." In his article, Berthold says that because of the tattoos carved into it, the coffin is "Queequeg's sacred text and co-extensive with his own body." Berthold sees this moment as in contrast to chapter 18 when Captain Peleg mislabels him as Quohog in the forms enrolling him to work on the ship. Queequeg is unable to correct Peleg's mistake because he cannot read or write. He is only able to sign the document with a mark that replicates one tattoo on his right arm. Dissimilarly, Berthold mentions that the coffin allows for Queequeg to "reproduce his entire body" in terms of tattoos. Berthold sees this full representation of Queequeg's tattoos on the coffin as a reclamation of "the wholeness that the official discourse of a Peleg denies him" previously in chapter 18.
In her journal article "'Defamiliarization' and the Ideology of Race in 'Moby Dick'", Martha Vick states that the "use of language to acknowledge equality [specifically in descriptions Queequeg] bestows the highest dignity possible on a nonwhite character at the same time that it calls into question the use of racial characteristics as criteria for determining identity."[5] For example, Ishmael initially describes Queequeg as a cannibal and a savage, but soon realizes that his appearances are misleading. Vick believes that Ishmael's consideration of Queequeg that contrasts the "illusion of his darkness" with the "reality of his goodness" promotes questioning of the traditional ideas of the racial hierarchy. Vick mentions how Ishmael then states that "a man can be honest in any sort of skin", which contributes to her argument that Melville's language encourages a new and just way of thinking.
At one point in chapter 10, Ishmael describes Queequeg as having "large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold... He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor... His [Queequeg's] forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than it otherwise would." Ishmael goes on to equate this description of Queequeg to George Washington's head. Ishmael states: "It had the same long regularly graded retreating, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed."
In Chapter Three, Queequeg stays out late selling human heads from New Zealand.
He is an extraordinary harpooner, demonstrating his skill for the money-tight owners of the Pequod by striking a small drop of tar floating on the water with one throw. The owners are so impressed that they immediately offer him a 90th lay (of the ship's profit) in exchange for his signing on with the crew. By contrast, Ishmael (who has experience in the merchant marine but none as a whaler) is initially offered a 777th lay but eventually secures a 300th. In port, Queequeg carries his sharpened harpoon with him at all times, unless prevented from doing so. He shaves with his harpoon as well and smokes regularly from a tomahawk that he carries with him.