I thought the whale was white because it was God :/
Melville was against racism in big ways (he thought slavery and such were evil), but he definitely wasn't above the petty racisms of stereotyping portrayals, and had absolutely no problem with European colour prejudice (white = good, black = evil). If that thesis were true, Ishmael should identify with the whale, too, because our narrator does identify with his race pretty heavily.
And the best way to get kids to read something is to say that it was banned ^_^
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regna
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Date: 2007-10-13 12:35 pm (UTC)Melville was against racism in big ways (he thought slavery and such were evil), but he definitely wasn't above the petty racisms of stereotyping portrayals, and had absolutely no problem with European colour prejudice (white = good, black = evil). If that thesis were true, Ishmael should identify with the whale, too, because our narrator does identify with his race pretty heavily.
And the best way to get kids to read something is to say that it was banned ^_^