Stubb’s Abandonment of Pip
The fact that Stubb abandoned Pip on his second time out of the boat brings several questions of ethics into focus aboard the Pequod. It weighs the value of human life with the economic value of the whale they are chasing and the time they may lose saving him. In addition, Stubb’s comments and advice to Pip turns the affair into a racial issue, because we do not know if the Stubb or any of the other shipmates would consciously attach a monetary value to the life of another child that was not black, or whether or not it would have affected his decision to leave Pip behind the second time.
The chapter also returns to the question posed earlier within the novel – can whales be given human characteristics of sentient being? Can their worth be compared with the worth of a human life? The regard for human life as a whole aboard the Pequod is called into question, because the sole child aboard the ship was tasked with a dangerous job and then left to float behind without anyone really questioning it. Pip was still a young child, and the full extent of his life as a human rested on Stubb’s decision.
I think it was a bit much for Pip to be abandoned as he was and left to die if need be, at the chance of catching a whale. But I also think that innocence is something that should be addressed. Is the Pequod any place for a young boy to be in the first place? Such journeys are know to be extremely dangerous and for seasoned sailors that are willing to lose their lives over. While I’m sure we all have the mindset of “no soldier left behind,” again that is a very 21st century mindset. The men are out there to risk their lives in order to catch whales, not save little boys. Perhaps this scene is also making the point that at sea experience is valued over youthfulness.
Do whales have feelings and can we kill them? It’s a question of morality honestly and I don’t have enough information in my head to figure out what animals are we allowed to hunt and how much so? As we spoke about in class, many of the people inside Ishmael’s world (and of that century) don’t try to fathom the rights of living creatures but themselves. They still are in the age of slaves and that is what oppresses them
I think it’s hard to understand Stubb’s motivations when we weren’t around in the 1840’s. We don’t understand what it was like to work on a whaling ship. Stubb’s racism definitely plays in, but I don’t think he would go above and beyond for anyone. He is on a ship to whale. It is a dangerous profession, it is not a respected position, and it is Stubb;s job. It wasn’t right but I can understand Stubb’s attitude.