# LXVII: Cutting In explained — Moby-Dick

> Chapter companion for Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

## What happens

The crew of the Pequod performs the bloody, industrial process of 'cutting in,' stripping the blubber from a captured whale. The chapter details the complex, coordinated, and perilous operation involving tackles, spades, and swords, as the ship itself strains under the effort and the blubber is peeled in long strips and lowered into the blubber-room.

## Themes in this chapter

### Man vs. Nature

The systematic, violent dismantling of the colossal whale represents humanity's technological mastery and brutal exploitation of nature.

### Isolation and Community

The dangerous, synchronized labor requires absolute coordination and trust among the entire crew, forging a temporary, functional community through shared, grueling work.

## Character check-ins

### Starbuck

One of the mates using a spade to cut the 'scarf' line in the whale's blubber.

### Stubb

The other mate working alongside Starbuck to cut the blubber from the whale.

### Tashtego

Implied as one of the attending harpooneers who could wield the boarding-sword, though not explicitly named.

### Daggoo

Implied as one of the attending harpooneers who could wield the boarding-sword, though not explicitly named.

### Queequeg

Implied as one of the attending harpooneers who could wield the boarding-sword, though not explicitly named.

## Key lines

> The ivory Pequod was turned into what seemed a shamble; every sailor a butcher.

The ship became a slaughterhouse, with each crew member acting as a butcher.

_Emphasizes the violent, bloody transformation of the vessel and men._

> she trembles, quivers, and nods her frighted mastheads to the sky.

The ship shakes and shudders, its mastheads trembling skyward as if in fear.

_Personifies the ship, highlighting the immense physical strain of the operation._

> the blubber envelopes the whale precisely as the rind does an orange, so is it stripped off from the body precisely as an orange is sometimes stripped by spiralizing it.

The blubber is peeled from the whale in a long, continuous strip, much like spiraling the peel off an orange.

_Uses a domestic simile to describe a macabre industrial process._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/lxvii-cutting-in
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters