Herman Melville's White-Jacket

An ocean’s worth of water is stronger than any iron bars. In Herman Melville’s White-Jacket: or The World in a Man-of-War, the themes of isolation, captivity, and imprisonment are heavily featured throughout the novel. Upon the novel’s release the majority of the readership’s attention was focused on the intense scenes of flogging, ultimately leading to the abolition of the act aboard United States Naval vessels. However, Melville’s depiction of flogging was only one aspect of military life that was being critiqued. Throughout the novel White-Jacket Herman Melville continuously and unfavorably compares life aboard a man-of-war to life in prison, highlighting the intense power disparity between the officers and the crew, the attempts at conditioning

She states, “the jacket—in its most important qualities and effects—symbolizes the ‘uniform’ in which all common sailors are imprisoned,” (30). She then notes that in chapter ninety-two, “The Last of the Jacket,” the narrator accidentally throws his jacket over his head and falls into the sea. She claims, “He cannot swim, however, because he is “pinioned” by the jacket (as a bird is pinioned to restrict its flight)” (35). This notion that the jacket is keeping White-Jacket from swimming clearly puts him and the jacket against one another, heightened by the fact that his jacket covering his face and mouth while he is in the water could literally kill him. This image of a white jacket keeping someone “pinioned” also conjures up the idea of a straightjacket, which is reserved for prisoners who are harmful to themselves or others. Adler seems to be pointing to the idea that those who have agreed to work aboard a man-of-war share a similar mental profile to those people who occupy straightjackets in prisons. Adler also states about the white jacket, “It creates a microcosm of the Neversink world, concentrating in one intensely visual scene the threefold choice that the book as a whole presents: life or death; acquiescence of dissent; the values of war or of peace,” (48). This duality that Adler highlights is unique in

It is interesting to note that quotation marks are put around the word “brig” but not the word “prisoners” in this passage. Through this difference, there seems to be a disconnect between how seriously each label is viewed by the narrator. The notion of the “brig” seems to be questioned, but undoubtedly the four men are prisoners, the same aboard the ship as they would be in Sing-Sing. This distinction showcases that while the actual institutions and processes of naval punishment may be suspect, the desired outcome rings true. The next image is the “sentry standing over them,” which quickly illustrates a power dynamic. By positioning an authority figure, in this instance the sentry, over the prisoners, the prisoners become less. This lessening not only results in the prisoners feeling subservient, but it also allows the authority to feel superior by comparison. This power of those in charge of the ship comes from the punishment of the average man, resulting in a disparity between the officers of the ship and the crew. This disparity is exploited; it is used to create an aura of unquestioning loyalty surrounding the authority of the ship. The passage continues by noting that the men have violated “a well-known law of the ship,” which would seem to make it unfortunate that the men have broken it, as they should know better. However, the law turns out to be a “general” fight that “sometimes” occurs