Examples Of Counterpane In Moby Dick

In Herman Melville's Moby Dick there is the idea of the "counterpane" of humanity . This Theme is mixed in throughout the story as a symbol of the multiculturalism. Melville shows that the world is a counterpane of diverse cultures races and environments in which we are always connected by our humanity Melville also uses the open sea as a metaphor for the world and mankind.

The most obvious counterpane in Moby Dick is the crew Pequod. Every shipmate on board the Pequod brought some sort of different culture and background to the ship. The three colored harpooners and three white mates each had their own beliefs about life. The other members of the crew such as Fedallah, Pip , Ahab, and Ishmael made up and bug mixture of cultures it is interesting

But what to make of this head-peddling purple rascal . . . his chest and arms . . . parts of him were checkered with the same squares as his face; his back too, was all over the same dark squares; still more, his very legs were marked . . . It was now quite plain that he must be some abominable savage or other . . . I quaked to think of it. A peddler of heads too – perhaps the heads of his own brothers. He might take a fancy to mine – heavens! Look at that tomahawk” Melville, 40-41., Queequeg is immediately portrayed as someone to despair. However, this impression is quickly passed on by the quick shift from Queequeg the savage, to Queequeg the noble and trustworthy friend.In the chapter entitled “Biographical” (70), the reader is alarmed to find that Queequeg is actually a prince, “His father . . . a High Chief, a King; his uncle a High Priest; and on the maternal side he boasted aunts who were the wives of unconquerable warriors. There was excellent blood in his veins – royal stuff; though sadly vitiated, I fear, by the cannibal propensity he nourished in his untutored youth” (Melville, 70). Still there is another culture that is rolled up into Queequeg, it is that of the Islamic religion. Queequeg follows the Ramadan