August 12, 2019 - Chapter One Hundred Eight


This chapter returns us to the dramatic form, with a short soliloquy by the carpenter from the previous chapter, along with a discussion between him and Ahab. In the discussion, Ahab references the phantom pain he still feels from his lost limb, and he asks the carpenter whether he might be able to help him. The oddest line that Ahab utters is “This must be the remainder the Greek made the Africans of.” I think Ahab is remarking on the blackness of soot and the skin of Africans, but the Greek reference is more difficult. He refers elsewhere in the exchange to Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods – a little digging shows that Greek myth also taught that Prometheus fashioned human beings from clay.

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