There is an ancient South Asian parable in Sanskrit about a group of five, six, or seven visually impaired sages who encounter an elephant (most surely an Asian one) for the first time in their lives. Due to the massive size of the pachyderm, each person touches a different body part and begins to draw a comparison. The one who hugs a leg thinks an elephant is like a tree trunk, the one who hugs the trunk or "trumpet" thinks it's some kind of serpent like a constrictor snake, the one holding an ear thinks an elephant is like a large palm leaf fan, the one with a grip on the tail thinks it's like a rope that unravels at the end, and so forth. The ending varies from telling to telling; usually they all squabble until the Buddha, or one of his previous incarnations, tells all the blind people that they were all of them right in their own way and they all reconcile.
A similar event occurs in Chapter 99 of Moby-Dick, which bears the title of "The Doubloon." The gold coin which gives the chapter its title is Ecuadorian (this republic had, like many others across its regions, just declared its independence as a free nation-state from the Royal Spanish Empire), and nailed to the main mast of the Pequod, to be given as a prize to the sailor or officer on board who first sights the titular white sperm whale.
Moby-Dick, and not only for its phallic title, became one of my adolescence reads that I still relish to this day. The Pequod, along with the boarding school Hogwarts that I discovered at around the same prepubescent age, was for me one of the earliest examples of what I adored in a "community crowded within narrow walls" (to use the expression for the galley in Ben-Hur), secluded but with extremely diverse inhabitants. The fortress on Cyprus in Othello by Shakespeare and the Nostromo in Alien would be other examples... but let's stick to the Pequod. It's Hogwarts but without being co-ed, still as ethnically diverse as a whaling crew or pirate crew can be, and floating all over the seven seas looking for cetaceans in general and THE WHITE SPERM WHALE in particular. Captain Ahab has beef with Moby-Dick. And whoever spots that whale first gets the Ecuadorian gold doubloon nailed to the main mast.
Before we pass on to the explanation of what Chapter 99 of Moby-Dick has to do with the parable of the elephant, I want to consider a pair of extra points of importance. The first is the iconography of the prize coin. The side of it that the Pequod's crew can see has three mountainous peaks forming a triangle: one peak is crowned with a tower, another with a volcanic eruption, and the third with a condor, a bird of prey native to the Andes region where Ecuador is located (and which Ishmael, the narrator, misidentifies as a rooster). The image is surrounded by a zodiac circle (much in the same manner that euro coins have their crown of twelve stars), each sign marked by its glyph, with the Sun entering the equinoctial point at the sign of Libra:
The second point is that the leading characters on board the Pequod - captain, mates (officers), and other key players, can be said to embody different personality types in the typology that is known as the Enneagram. Each and every one of the nine numbered enneatypes has its own strengths and weaknesses - in a microcosmic and diverse "community crowded within narrow walls," we can see them play off each other. Ditto if we give them all the same object, the same "elephant," to examine. This "elephant" is in the novel none other than the Ecuadorian doubloon!
Raw power and defiance incarnate in the Captain. Faith, humour, and bravado (elements of intelligence embodied in Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask respectively). Separate, they were just men; together, joined by the navel of the ship, they created a galaxy that represents the human race and the dual nature of humanity in which the ongoing battle between good and evil eternally strives for balance.
What does Captain Ahab see in the doubloon? He identifies with the tower (steadfast and strong), with the condor (no spring chicken), with the volcano (a soul on fire). All three of which are phallic symbols. Ahab stresses his own masculinity and strength in this reading on the coin's iconography, and yet he is himself literally scarred from crown to toe and missing one leg from a crushing defeat at an epic elemental battle he seeks to avenge - long story short, insecure and emasculated! On the Enneagram, Ahab is an Eight. And furthermore, an Eight in a position of power and control (as captain of his crew), and an Eight who thirsts for revenge. Woe upon the one that crosses his path... His vendetta (spoiler alert!!!) can only have one outcome: to take Moby-Dick with him to Davy Jones' locker, and nevermore resurface.
What does Starbuck, Ahab's right-hand first mate, see in the doubloon? Starbuck is a man of faith; one would even call him a Puritan. He is less drawn to the phallic symbols on the peaks and more to the fact that they form a triangle and there is a valley in the middle. And to the Sun. To him the triangle of peaks is crystal clear: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In the middle lieth the Vale of Tears, also known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death (a pretty bleak conception of the living world). The Sun is also Jesus as the Sun of Hope, or Sun of Righteousness. Starbuck is a One on the Enneagram, to be more precise a One of the Devout One subspecies, that is nowadays endangered due to secularisation but still exists. One of those who preach a lot about heaven and salvation or else about sins and the lake of fire and who take extra care in doing right because they think extra about their afterlives... It is telling that Starbuck the One is second-in-command to Ahab the Eight. There is this scene where Ahab tries to harpoon down or shoot down the Sun itself (speaking of the Sun) and he would have wasted ammo if do-righter Starbuck had not stopped him before he could fire.
What does Stubb, Ahab's left-hand second mate, see in the doubloon? Stubb is happy-go-lucky; to him everything is funny and nothing is to be taken seriously. Neither valiant nor craven (cowardly), concerned only with physical and unconcerned with spiritual needs, long usage has converted the jaws of Death for him into an easy-chair. If this sounds all like Stubb and Tyrion Lannister are kindred spirits, you are right, they're the same enneatype! Both even have oral fixation addictions: Tyrion drinks while Stubb smokes his pipe. What draws his attention is the zodiac on the doubloon: he sees the wheel of life turn every zodiacal year. Starting every springtime equinox:
- Aries begets us (gives us life)
- Taurus bumps us the first thing (materializes)
- Gemini brings duality, virtue and vice (right and wrong)
- Cancer drags us back (regression)
- Leo gives a few surly dabs with his paws (plays with us)
- Virgo: our first love (of the year: ideals)
- Libra: happiness weighed (reference to the myth of Anubis?)
- Scorpio stings us in the rear
- Sagittarius is amusing himself doing target practice (encouraging us to aim)
- Capricorn comes full tilt rushing, and headlong we are tossed
- Aquarius pours out a whole deluge and drowns us (flooding)
- Pisces: we sleep with the fishies
In the Enneagram, Stubb, like Tyrion and yours truly, is a happy-go-lucky Seven. Like the sun goes through this gauntlet every zodiacal year, so Stubb goes through it and comes through it all alive and hearty.
What does Flask, the third mate, see in the doubloon? Flask bullies his way through life with bravado, and that in spite of being diminiutive in size: Stubb calls him "little king-post," while Ishmael compares him to a "chessman," ie a tiny pawn. They assume Flask's bark is worse than his bite. To him, a whale is but a magnified rodent to be exterminated... He does not give a hoot about the coin's iconography. He only sees that it's a gold coin. And if he is the lucky one to be first to spot a certain white sperm whale, he will have a fortune to spend on over ninety cigars, and smoke something classier than Stubb's old pipe. Flask is, on the Enneagram, a counterphobic Six (there are phobic and counterphobic Sixes) with a nasty Napoleon complex to boot.The realism and practicality typical of Sixes surface when he does not care for any iconographical symbols on the coin, like the other mates have done, but rather for its material and price.
