When I was researching for my paper, I found lots of quotes and opinions discussing how Melville addresses the issue of race in Moby Dick. So I decided to do a search of the text available through Project Gutenberg. In the text I found the word "black" appears 138 times, while "white" appears 317 times. As I looked more closely at the various examples, I found that "white" was often used either in a description of a man of power, or of solid substances. For example, "white" is the adjective used to describe ivory, lumber, churches, etc. The "white whale" is specifically referenced 108 times out of the 317. On the other hand, "black" was often in reference to indefinite ideas and objects such as clouds, waters, air, storms, soot. References in particular to black men or white men are few, but I feel that an analysis of Moby Dick through the use of these two basic words allows us to see what the text really is saying in regards to race. While "black" is indefinite and often dangerous, the whole novel focuses on chasing after that which is "white". The entire novel is in pursuit of the white whale. Examining the text in this way has caused me to reconsider the way I read Moby Dick, and I'm interested to see what other pairings come from searching opposites.
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