Queequeg

Description

A noble Polynesian harpooneer and close companion of the narrator, shown here in his final illness. Stricken with fever after laboring in the ship’s hold, Queequeg calmly prepares for death by commissioning his own coffin in the shape of a Nantucket canoe, reflecting his spiritual beliefs. His peaceful acceptance of mortality contrasts with Ahab’s rage against fate, and his symbolic resurrection later in the narrative is foreshadowed by his sudden recovery after the coffin is built.