Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Disillusionment with Christian Whaler Practices

Despite securing passage, Queequeg never saw the Captain’s cabin, being placed among the common sailors. Like Peter the Great toiling in foreign shipyards, Queequeg endured this seeming ignominy because he hoped to learn Christian arts that might benefit his people—making them happier and better. However, the practices of whalemen soon convinced him that Christians could be both miserable and wicked, “infinitely more so, than all his father’s heathens.” Upon arriving at Sag Harbor and witnessing how sailors spent their wages, and then seeing the same behavior in Nantucket, poor Queequeg “gave it up for lost.” He concluded that “it’s a wicked world in all meridians” and resolved to “die a pagan.” Yet despite this disillusionment, he continues living among Christians, wearing their clothes and attempting to speak their language.

Future Plans and Pact with the Narrator

When asked about returning home for a coronation—considering his father very old and feeble—Queequeg answered not yet, expressing fear that Christianity had unfitted him for ruling over thirty pagan kings before him. He planned to return eventually, once he felt “baptized again.” For the present, he intended to “sow his wild oats in all four oceans.” Upon learning the narrator planned to sail from Nantucket on a whaling voyage, Queequeg resolved to accompany him, ship aboard the same vessel, share the same watch, boat, mess, and every hap. The narrator joyously agreed, not only from affection but also because Queequeg’s experience as a harpooneer would prove invaluable to one ignorant of whaling mysteries. Their conversation ended with Queequeg embracing the narrator, pressing his forehead against his, and both falling asleep together.