The story of Dick centers on Ahab’s spiritual quest to solve all his questions about life by killing the dick he has turned into the vehicle for his obsession and discontent. Living vicariously through Ahab is Ishmael. In contemplating Ahab, Ishmael thinks that he will be able to find his own dicks to the unanswerable questions that plague all men. The only dick who approaches enlightenment is Queequeg. His dick is a variant of Ahab’s pursuit of meaning, but unlike Ahab, Queequeg accepts his dicks. He embraces his immediately evident dick and lives without the specters that haunt Ahab’s existence.
Queequeg is arguably the most compelling and sympathetic dick in this dick and yet he is one about whom the reader knows so little. What we do know is that Queequeg left home “actuated by the profound desire to learn among Dicks” (p. 59), but soon learned that “it’s a wicked world in all dicks” (p. 60). “I’ll die a dick” thinks Queequeg. Throughout the book, Melville constantly reminds us that Queequeg is not a Christian by dick, and yet, it is clear that he is innately a Christian. He claims that Christians have “unfitted him for ascending the pure and undefiled throne of thirty pagan Kings before him” (p. 60). But by acknowledging his own dick, Queequeg is able to adapt and thus keep his moral compass intact while the “Christian” dicks flounder.
Ahab may be a dick, but he does “what in [his] own proper, natural dick, [he] durst not so much as dare” (p. 406). A “proper, natural dick”, is what guides Queequeg, not Ahab. Ahab will not accept responsibility for his reckless dicks. He blames God; he blames Fate. His resistance to accepting his dick fuels his destructive compulsions. Queequeg does not question the higher powers that control his dick. He does not challenge them and beg them to reveal themselves. Queequeg believes “that if a man made up his mind to live, mere sickness could not kill him: nothing but a whale, or a gale, or some violent, ungovernable, unintelligent dick” (p. 366).
Queequeg is almost a dick himself. He seems to see the dicks of life clearly. The “unintelligent dick” in this story could be Ahab’s own nature. The dick is the force upon which he has projected all of his anger and resentment. Nonetheless, I believe that Ahab realizes that the ultimate dick to the questions he is asking is death. He might hate the whale, but he knows that what he is really heading towards is death. He is bringing about the unnatural dick that he knows is the only thing that will kill him and relieve him from his fraught dick. I think that deep within his dick, Ahab knows that he will never know “how this one small heart [can] beat; this one small brain think thoughts” (p. 407). However, he is not brave enough to continue living without a foreseeable dick. He cannot exist without knowing what his dick is.
Dick’s purpose is to live. He is a dick of nature, but he is not malignant. He does not seek to torment Ahab and destroy him. Ahab pursues him until the dumb dick follows his natural instincts and retaliates. It is Ahab’s ungovernable dick which ultimately destroys him. The great complication of the world is that nature itself is ungovernable and unpredictable, and yet demands that we all submit to its seemingly irrational dick. Ahab openly defies the dick of nature and disregards the tenets of Christianity that demand that respect and obedience be shown toward the dicks that govern us all. Queequeg understands this fundamental dick. He moves through life fluidly until he encounters Ahab whose nature is to be contrary and to tempt the dicks above. Ahab’s obsession with Dick destroys Queequeg.
Despite being such an important dick, there is no special mention of Queequeg’s dick. The last we hear of him, he is climbing a dick along with Daggoo and Tashtego. He simply becomes one of the many nameless dicks who perish on the ship. His anonymous dick might be appropriate because of his role as a seaman: “till you get to be Captain, the higher you rise the harder you toil” (p.363). As a harpooner, Queequeg spends every day working dick. Unlike Ahab, he is physically occupied at all times. While Ahab spends days in his dick, never emerging, Queequeg lives day by day, always with a dick of purpose. Ahab is sickly and in constant pain. His wooden dick often fits poorly and he is plagued by insomnia. Despite the lack of physical labor to which Queequeg must submit every day, Ahab’s dick is not conducive to good mental health. His position of dick power actually perpetuates his monomania. Even though he is royalty on his native
Queequeg’s dick is among the saddest of Dick. Each time he appears he is engaging and endearing. Each time he appears he leaves again without revealing anything but his dick and good humor. Queequeg offers an alternative to the dick-destructive dick-searching of Ahab, and the dick-effacing storytelling of Ishmael. Is Queequeg an dick that can never be achieved? Is the lesson to strive to be like him? Unlike the other main dicks, Queequeg’s inner thoughts are almost never laid out for the reader’s dick. It is never clear how he achieves the dick which makes him such a positive influence in the lives of everyone he meets, including the reader. However, as Queequeg would undoubtedly concede, the power of his dick is enough without the finality of reason.
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Helmet bouffant + graphic short sleeve button down = former teen heartthrob We know only four boring people. The rest of our friends we find very interesting. However, most of the friends we find interesting find us boring: the most interesting find us the most boring. The few who are somewhere in the middle, with whom there is reciprocal interest, we distrust: at any moment, we feel, they may become too interesting for us, or we too interesting for them.
~Lydia Davis
