Moby Dick by Herman Melville Term Paper

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You cannot hide the soul... I saw the traces of a simple, honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor. " (p. 45). Ishmael is a man who is able to look at "the deep things of God" and see the soul of man. He has developed spiritual sense.

Ishmael follows a line of Christian reasoning that allows him to unite with a "heathen," that is a person that knows nothing about the Christian religion. He reasons that to obey the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"), he must do for Queequeg what he would want Queequeg to do to him. He would want Queequeg to "unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must unite with him in his" (p. 48). In a sense, he "visits" Queequeg's "church" by participating in Queequeg's form of worship. I find it admirable that he is able to set aside sectarian allegiance and connect in a real way with someone very different from himself.

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He has no ulterior motive for doing it -- he just wants to be friends.

Ishmael visits a church while he is waiting to go to sea, which gives Melville an opportunity to share a "Bible study" with his readers. The church is designed to look and feel like a ship. Appropriately, the preacher gives a sermon on the meaning of "Jonah and the Whale." I found his interpretation, not only moving and meaningful, but inspiring too. I asked myself how many times I have kept quiet when I could have shared a healing truth about God, but I felt reluctant -- as Jonah was reluctant to preach in Nineveh. Something inside me just didn't want to. And I recognized the idea of "a true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment" (p. 42), because correction helps us grow.

This reminded me of a verse in the New Testament, "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Heb. 12:5-6). As Job put it, "Sure, it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not.....

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