The Tie That Binds - Book Report/Review Example

He was living his life just as he wanted it. He felt no need to show or explain to the people who he was, nor what his circumstances in life were. Ishmael's respect for Queequeg grew all the more. He also started to practice Queequegs ways of praying to Yojo. Their friendship grew despite the occurrences in society that discriminated against the savage. Aside from respect and belief in a higher being, Ishmael saw that Queequeg held himself high. He had dignity. Never did he ask for assistance when being discriminated against.

He would demonstrate his skill and he would instantly be treated well. Perhaps this is the reason why Queequeg stayed in cities near ports and in the seas. This was his niche. Ishmael understood and together they became brothers conquering the seas. They have grown to depend on each other and held each other's life as signified by the "monkey rope." With the end of the rope tied at each others' waist, they would do their job together. They became a team - what one lacked the other supplied. Ishmael was weak while Queequeg was strong.

Ishmael was lacking in faith while Queequeg was filled with it. Ishmael understood that he lacked this because of the refinement that living in the city brought. One gets self-absorbed with appearances that one rarely feeds the soul. Through Queequeg, Ishmael was able to get in touch with his inner self and with his beginnings. It is in this sense that he was humanized by Queequeg. As to the issue of being civilized and not being civilized, in the middle part of the novel, Ishmael begins a greater discourse within himself about who was civilized and who was not: the harpooner who with brutality strikes the final blow to kill the whale or the people with the so-called refinement of being civilized, who eats the whale.

The harpooner although savage-looking does religiously serve his God and shows great dignity in work is actually more civilized. He knows his responsibility to his God and to his work. Still, society considers him as uncivilized because of the way he clothes himself. The irony is that the harpooner is a prince in his land and he merely stays with "the civilized" people to watch and learn of them. Who then is more civilized