August 22, 2019 - Chapters One Hundred Twenty-seven and One Hundred Twenty-eight


These two chapters have Ahab viewing the coffin (Queequeg's), which will now serve as a lifebuoy, and the meeting of the Pequod with the Rachel -- the latter of which is also a Nantucket whaler that has not only seen Moby Dick but has lost a boat in pursuing the white whale. This boat had the captain's son on it, and in this gam, the Rachel's captain begs Ahab for help -- help that Ahab refuses. The captain reminds Ahab that he has a son of his own -- a point I don't think we've heard before -- and Ahab still refuses, thus demonstrating his monomania. In one of the more obvious allusions of the novel, noted directly by the narrator, the reference here is to the biblical Rachel “weeping for her children,” recalling the slaughter of innocents in the Gospel of Matthew.


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