Identifying the Destroyer: The Impact of the Pequod's Historical Context on the Novel

As Louis Heller writes in his essay “Two Pequot Names in American Literature,” the name Pequod may be as elemental as Melville suggests in Chapter XVI “The Ship” when he says “you will no doubt remember that was name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts Indians, now extinct as ancient Medes.” While perhaps readers may have been familiar with the Pequod tribe in Melville’s time, today, the narrator’s seemingly strange assumption creates more humor than significant historical or literary meaning. Historically, the Pequot tribe was originally part of the Algonquin Mohegans. When this tribe moved south into Eastern Connecticut they antagonized and dominated neighboring tribes in the area. As such, the fearful members of surrounding tribes began calling them the Pequots, meaning “destroyers.” This essay examines Melville’s possible intentions for using the name Pequod in terms of how its historical significance may impact Melville’s agent of destruction within his novel.