Why was that sailor cutting up Queeqeg?
That seemed like such an odd scene and I wasn't sure why it was being done. Can anyone explain?
shareThe ship was becalmed and the crew was out of their minds with boredom. Queeqeg cast the bones and determined he was going to die, so he commissioned the casket from the carpenter, gave all his stuff to Ishmael, and put himself in a trance waiting for the end. The sailors were cutting his chest to amuse themselves, and to see how deep the trance was, see if they could snap him out of it with pain.
shareWell, they did snap him out of it, and he, in turn, tried to snap the whaler's back.
shareActually, what broke the spell was that Queegueg's peripheral awareness saw that his friend Ishmael was in danger of being stabbed by the jerk who had been cutting up Queequeg. The islander's loyalty to his friend was stronger than the trance.
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