Introduction
The link between various civilizations and belief systems is one of many topics and concepts that Herman Melville tackles in his complex work, Moby-Dick. “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” is one of the book’s most well-known quotes. This remark brings up essential considerations regarding cultural diversity and the interactions between various belief systems. Herman Melville’s aphorism “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” demonstrates his interest in examining the nature of cultural diversity and the potential for connection and understanding across many belief systems, as shown in his book Typee.
Quote Analysis
According to Melville’s assertion, a person’s behavior and character are not influenced by their cultural or religious background. In other words, simply because a person follows a particular culture or religion does not inherently make them good or bad. The Marquesas Islands’ Typee people are the subject of the novel Typee, which is based on the author’s living experiences (Mathew 35). When Melville first arrives in the Marquesas, he has a lot of mistrust and concern for the Typee people, who are thought to be vicious and cannibalistic. But as the story goes on, Melville’s opinion of the Typee shifts, and he starts to consider them as kind, wise, and profoundly spiritual people.
Ishmael in Moby-Dick reflects this change in Melville’s perspective on the Typee. Ishmael finds himself in the Spouter Inn in Chapter 3 of the book, a dirty and run-down tavern frequented by sailors and other sketchy individuals. He encounters several Christian and inebriated individuals here, including the harpooner. According to his skin color, Ishmael first thinks of the harpooner as filthy and unpredictable. He notes, “I could not help it, but I began to feel suspicious of this dark-complexioned harpooner” (Melville 74). Despite Ishmael’s judgment of the harpooner, he is a sympathetic figure capable of regulating his behavior.
Melville undernotes that one’s cultural or religious background does not reflect one’s behavior or character. For instance, he paints the Christian missionaries as corrupt and hypocritical while painting the Typees as heroic and honorable despite their cannibalism. The Pacific Ocean is referred to in the line from Moby-Dick as a “sweet mystery” with a “hidden soul beneath,” and Melville implies that all human life and emotion are latent beneath its surface (Melville 517).
The more materialistic and hypocritical worldview of the Christian missionaries who come to the Typee contrasts with this mystical understanding of the water. Melville’s depictions of the Pacific Ocean as a mystic and enigmatic force in Moby-Dick and Typee, and his juxtaposition of the honorable Typees with the dishonest Christian missionaries, point to a broader indictment of Western culture and its principles.
The adage “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” critiques the immorality of Melville’s day’s ostensibly Christian and civilized society. This idea is made clear in the tale of Perth, the blacksmith from Moby Dick’s Chapter 112, whose life was devastated by a crime a fellow human being committed. The tragic tale of Perth exposes the shortcomings of the so-called civilized civilization. He was a skilled craftsman with a caring family and a happy existence, but everything was taken from him by a thief who was eventually identified as the Bottle Conjuror (Melville 520). The misfortune of Perth indicates that the purportedly Christian and civilized society is not as upright as it pretends to be.
Conclusion
To conclude, Melville’s remark that “Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian“ highlights that he examines colonialism’s complexity and the issues of cultural relativism in his writings. Melville understands the intricacies and worth of various civilizations, especially the disenfranchised ones, even though cannibalism may seem objectionable to outsiders. Together, these pieces reveal Melville’s varied and complicated viewpoint on the clash of civilizations.
Works Cited
Mathew, Roby. “Mortal Combats from Classics to Contemporary: Archetypes in the Matrix of Melville’s Nautical Fictional Combats.” Teresian Journal of English Studies 13.2 (2021): 34-40. Web.
Melville, Herman. “Moby dick.” 82 (2012). Web.