View source for Queequeg

{{Short description|Character from the novel Moby-Dick}}
{{for|the submarine from ''A Series of Unfortunate Events''|Queequeg (A Series of Unfortunate Events){{!}}''Queequeg'' (''A Series of Unfortunate Events'')}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=July 2020}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=November 2025}}
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}}
{{Infobox character
| series = [[Moby Dick]]
| image = Queequeg.JPG
| creator = [[Herman Melville]]
| occupation =
| gender = Male
| nationality = South Pacific Islander
}}

'''Queequeg''' is a character in the 1851 novel ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' by American author [[Herman Melville]]. The story outlines his royal, Polynesian descent, as well as his desire to "visit Christendom" that led him to leave his homeland.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Melville |first=Herman |title=Moby-Dick, or The Whale |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=1851 |editor-last=Simon |editor-first=Pete |location=New York |pages=31, 39, 44, 73–77, 81–82, 96–115, 117–119, 546–551, epilogue |language=English}}</ref> Queequeg is visually distinguished by his striking facial tattoos and tan skin. [[Ishmael (Moby-Dick)|Ishmael]] encounters Queequeg in Chapter Three and they become unlikely friends. Once aboard the whaling ship the [[Pequod (Moby-Dick)|''Pequod'']], Queequeg becomes the harpooner for the mate [[List of Moby-Dick characters#Mates|Starbuck]].

== Familial and cultural history ==
Queequeg is native to the fictional island of Kokovoko (also known as Rokovoko), an "island far away to the West and South",<ref name=":0" /> or more specifically in the [[Pacific Ocean|South Pacific Ocean]]. He was the son of High Chief, King as well various other well-respected individuals of his community. Queequeg's culture is referenced to be cannibalistic. The narration of the book makes it clear that cannibalism was not universally accepted at this time.

In the novel, Queequeg is described as having an "ambitious soul" who had a strong "desire to visit Christendom".<ref name=":0" /> Queequeg left home when he snuck onto a Sag Harbor ship that was passing by his father's land. At first rejected by the whaler that landed on his island, he skillfully jumped from a canoe and clamped to the side of the ship as it was leaving for the open sea, at which point the captain relented.<ref name=":0" /> He was trained as a whaleman during this time and continued in this profession going forward.

Despite his interest in "Christendom", Queequeg practiced a pagan religion. Queequeg practices a form of [[animism]] using a small idol named Yojo, for whom he builds small ceremonial fires. As part of his religion, he practices a prolonged period of fasting and silence (which Ishmael calls his "[[Ramadan]]").<ref name=":0" /> In chapter seventeen, Queequeg locks himself in his room in Nantucket to keep his fast and silence. Even after Ishmael enters the room, Queequeg is unbothered and does not acknowledge Ishmael's presence.<ref name=":0" />

== Queequeg's tattoos ==
In her book ''Tattooing the World'', author Juniper Ellis contemplates the significance of Queequeg's face and bodily markings. Ellis claims that Melville was inspired by a representation of the [[Māori people|Māori]] Chief [[Te Pēhi Kupe]] in [[George Lillie Craik]]'s book, ''The New Zealanders''. Records indicate that Melville's encounter with Craik's book in 1850 caused him to replace Bulkington (the originally intended companion of Ishmael) with a new character: Queequeg.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Juniper |title=Tattooing the World |date=2008 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-14369-1 |pages=52–65 |chapter="The Original Queequeg"? TE PEHI KUPE, TOI MOKO, AND MOBY-DICK |doi=10.7312/elli14368 |jstor=10.7312/elli14368.8}}</ref>

While the descriptions of Queequeg's tattoos are dissimilar to those of the Māori Chief, Ellis claims that Melville took inspiration from Te Pēhi Kupe. The parallels and distinctions between his source of inspiration are important to Ellis's interpretation of Queequeg. Although they are similar, Queequeg's tattoos are described in the text as more geometric and square-shaped than the Māori tattoos that are often "rounded into spirals".<ref name=":2" /> Because the historical evidence points to Craik's book as an inspiration for Melville, Ellis argues that these tattoos similarly indicate genealogy, family, and individual identities. Additionally, she believes that these parallels create a stronger link between Queequeg and Pacific origin cultures.<ref name=":2" />

== Relationship with Ishmael ==
Queequeg and Ishmael first meet in [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]] when Ishmael and he are placed in the same room of The Spouter-Inn. At this moment, Queequeg had just returned from a whaling voyage and Ishmael was staying the night on the way towards a voyage as well. Queequeg returns late to the inn, not knowing that Ishmael has been booked into the same room with him. Ishmael is at first afraid of this unfamiliar person who he must share a bed with, however, he keeps an open mind. He quickly comes to the conclusion that "for all his tattooings he [Queequeg] was on the whole a clean, comely-looking cannibal."<ref name=":0" />

Chapter Four begins with Queequeg's arm "thrown over" Ishmael in his sleep.<ref name=":0" /> This scene is an abrupt, striking contrast to the previous chapter in which Queequeg threatens to kill Ishmael. Ishmael states that "You had almost thought I had been his wife." Soon after, in Chapter 10, Queequeg proclaims that they are married, which in his country implies that they are "bosom friends".<ref name=":0" />

Steven B. Herrmann analyzes this relationship in his journal article "Melville's Portrait of Same-Sex Marriage in Moby-Dick." Herrmann believes that the "Ishmael-Queequeg 'marriage'...is the first portrait of same-sex marriage in American literature."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Herrmann |first=Steven B. |date=Summer 2010 |title=Melville's Portrait of Same-Sex Marriage in Moby-Dick |journal=Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=65–82 |doi=10.1525/jung.2010.4.3.65 |jstor=10.1525/jung.2010.4.3.65}}</ref> He sees the physical affection between the two characters as Melville moving beyond the "cultural imprints of homophobia" in literature.<ref name=":1" /> Regardless of Herrmann's beliefs, it cannot be confirmed whether Melville intended for this to be a homosexual relationship; Melville leaves this interpretation to the reader.

== Queequeg's coffin ==
Toward the end of the novel Queequeg falls ill and is presumed to die. In chapter 110, Queequeg expresses his desire to not be buried in his hammock, "according to the usual sea-custom", but rather that a canoe-like coffin be made for him when he dies.<ref name=":0" /> Sickness does not overtake Queequeg. While he recovers from his illness, he does die by other means in the end. He does not survive the Pequod's wreck as Ishmael is the only survivor. Still, he is ultimately responsible for saving Ishmael's life from beyond the grave. Ishmael survives the wreck by clinging to the coffin that had been made for Queequeg.<ref name=":0" />

Michael C. Berthold's journal article titled "Moby-Dick and American Slave Narrative" from the ''Massachusetts Review'' outlines one idea regarding the symbolic meaning of Queequeg's coffin.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Berthold |first=Michael C. |date=Spring 1994 |title=Moby-Dick and American Slave Narrative |journal=The Massachusetts Review |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=135–148 |jstor=25090518}}</ref> When Queequeg heals and is no longer presumed to die in chapter 110, the book mentions how he spent many hours "carving the lid with all manner of grotesque figures and drawings...to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on his body."<ref name=":0" /> In his article, Berthold says that because of the tattoos carved into it, the coffin is "Queequeg's sacred text and co-extensive with his own body."<ref name=":4" /> Berthold sees this moment as in contrast to chapter 18 when [[Captain Peleg]] mislabels him as Quohog in the forms enrolling him to work on the ship. Queequeg is unable to correct Peleg's mistake because he cannot read or write. He is only able to sign the document with a mark that replicates one tattoo on his right arm.<ref name=":0" /> Dissimilarly, Berthold mentions that the coffin allows for Queequeg to "reproduce his entire body" in terms of tattoos. Berthold sees this full representation of Queequeg's tattoos on the coffin as a reclamation of "the wholeness that the official discourse of a Peleg denies him" previously in chapter 18.

== Race through Queequeg ==
In her journal article "'Defamiliarization' and the Ideology of Race in 'Moby Dick'", Martha Vick states that the "use of language to acknowledge equality [specifically in descriptions of Queequeg] bestows the highest dignity possible on a nonwhite character at the same time that it calls into question the use of racial characteristics as criteria for determining identity."<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Vick |first=Martha C. |date=March 1992 |title="Defamiliarization" and the Ideology of Race in "Moby-Dick" |journal=CLA Journal |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=325–338 |jstor=44322497}}</ref> For example, Ishmael initially describes Queequeg as a cannibal and a savage, but soon realizes that his appearances are misleading. Vick believes that Ishmael's consideration of Queequeg that contrasts the "illusion of his darkness" with the "reality of his goodness" promotes questioning of the traditional ideas of the racial hierarchy.<ref name=":3" /> Vick mentions how Ishmael then states that "a man can be honest in any sort of skin", which contributes to her argument that Melville's language encourages a new and just way of thinking.

At one point in chapter 10, Ishmael describes Queequeg as having "large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold... He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor... His [Queequeg's] forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than it otherwise would."<ref name=":0" /> Ishmael goes on to equate this description of Queequeg to George Washington's head. Ishmael states: "It had the same long regularly graded retreating, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed."<ref name=":0" />

== Skills and interests ==
In Chapter Three, Queequeg stays out late selling human heads from New Zealand.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Moby Dick p91 illustration.jpg|thumb|upright|Queequeg (center) and Ishmael approach the ''Pequod'']]

He is an extraordinary harpooner, demonstrating his skill for the money-tight owners of the ''Pequod'' by striking a small drop of tar floating on the water with one throw. The owners are so impressed that they immediately offer him a 90th lay ({{Frac|1|90}} of the ship's profit) in exchange for his signing on with the crew. By contrast, Ishmael (who has experience in the [[merchant marine]] but none as a whaler) is initially offered a 777th lay but eventually secures a 300th. In port, Queequeg carries his sharpened harpoon with him at all times, unless prevented from doing so. He shaves with his harpoon as well and smokes regularly from a [[Tomahawk (axe)|tomahawk]] that he carries with him.<ref name=":0" />

== Cultural references ==
[[File:Friedrich von Ledebur-Richard Basehart in Moby Dick.jpg|thumb|left|Austrian actor [[Friedrich von Ledebur]] as Queequeg in [[Moby Dick (1956 film)|the 1956 film adaptation]]]]
* [[Sam Baker (actor)|Sam Baker]]'s most memorable role was Queequeg in ''[[The Sea Beast (1926 film)|The Sea Beast]]'' (1926).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Soister |first1=John T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajXwxJuYd5gC&pg=PA399 |title=American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913–1929 |last2=Nicolella |first2=Henry |last3=Joyce |first3=Steve |date=January 31, 2013 |publisher=[[McFarland Publishing]] |isbn=9780786487905 |page=399}}</ref>
* A version of Queequeg appears as a character in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "[[The Day the Earth Stood Stupid]]".<ref>{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Eric |date=January 2, 2014 |title=The Greatest Bookish Moments of Futurama |url=https://bookriot.com/2014/01/02/greatest-bookish-moments-futurama-2/ |access-date=May 16, 2019 |website=Bookriot}}</ref>
* On ''[[The X-Files]]'', Special Agent [[Dana Scully]] named her dog Queequeg (last appearance Season 3 Episode 22) after the ''Moby-Dick'' character.<ref>{{cite web |last=Panos |first=Maggie |date=February 2, 2016 |title=The X-Files: Can We Address That Queequeg Shout-Out on This Week's Episode? |url=https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/X-Files-Queequeg-Reference-40035755 |access-date=May 16, 2019 |website=[[PopSugar]]}}</ref> The name was also taken as an email handle by Scully. In Season 11 Episode 7, Scully tells a security company representative her password to reset her home alarm is Queequeg.<ref>{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Liz Shannon |date=February 28, 2018 |title='The X-Files' Review: 'Rm9sbG93ZXJz' Keeps It Simple and Silent for a Creatively Daring Episode |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/x-files-season-11-episode-7-rm9sbg93zxjz-review-no-dialogue-followers-base64-spoilers-1201934001/ |access-date=May 16, 2019 |website=[[IndieWire]]}}</ref>
* Queequeg's is the name of a coffee chain in the video game universe of ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War]]''. Its supposed in-game rival chain is named Pequod's.<ref>{{cite web |last=Younger |first=Paul |date=May 22, 2012 |title=Coffee Wars: Queequeg's and Pequod's |url=https://www.pcinvasion.com/coffee-wars-queequegs-and-pequods/ |website=PC Invasion}}</ref>
* An alien species called [[List of Star Wars species (U–Z)#Weequay|Weequay]] is introduced in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', whose denomination and physical appearance is a clear nod to Melville's Queequeg.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jennings |first=Dana |date=August 1, 2018 |title=Much to Learn You Still Have: 8 Things You Might Not Know About Weequays |url=https://www.starwars.com/news/much-to-learn-weequays |access-date=May 16, 2019 |website=[[StarWars.com]]}}</ref>
* In the eleventh book of Lemony Snicket's ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', the main characters, the Baudelaires, board a submarine named the ''Queequeg'', operated by a crew who wear portraits of Herman Melville on their uniforms.{{cn|date=November 2025}}
* In the South Korean indie horror gacha game ''[[Limbus Company]]'', one of the 12 playable characters is a young woman named Ishmael. Her backstory, like that of every protagonist in the game, mirrors that of her literary counterpart. Queequeg is an important figure in Ishmael's backstory, and is depicted as an intimidating, muscular woman who had taken Ishmael under her wing, and with whom Ishmael had formed a deeper bond.{{cn|date=November 2025}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book |last=Buell |first=Lawrence |author-link=Lawrence Buell (academic) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5DzAgAAQBAJ |title=The Dream of the Great American Novel |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780674051157}}
* {{cite journal |last=Leiter |first=Louis |year=1958 |title=Queequeg's Coffin |journal=Nineteenth-Century Fiction |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=249–254 |doi=10.2307/3044383 |jstor=3044383}}
* {{cite book |last=Manguel |first=Alberto |title=Fabulous Monsters: Dracula, Alice, Superman, and Other Literary Friends |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2019 |pages=93–98 |chapter=Queequeg |doi=10.2307/j.ctvnwbztx.20}}
* {{cite book |last=Sanborn |first=Geoffrey |title=Whipscars and Tattoos: The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, and the Maori |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780199751693 |location=New York}}
* {{cite journal |last=Strauch |first=Carl F. |year=1969 |title=Ishmael: Time and Personality in 'Moby-Dick' |journal=Studies in the Novel |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=468–483 |jstor=29531364}}
* {{cite book |last=Zoellner |first=Robert |title=The Salt-Sea Mastodon: A Reading of Moby-Dick |publisher=University of California Press |year=1973 |edition=1st |pages=215–238 |chapter=Queequeg: The Well-Governed Shark |doi=10.2307/jj.8085324.14}}

{{Moby-Dick}}

[[Category:Fictional cannibals]]
[[Category:Fictional indigenous Oceanian people]]
[[Category:Fictional pagans]]
[[Category:Fictional sailors]]
[[Category:Male characters in literature]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1851]]
[[Category:Characters in Moby-Dick]]