Queequeg

Meanings

1. A fictional sidekick character in American author Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick, the multiracial tattooed Polynesian cannibal prince and skilled harpooner who became a whaler on European vessels out of wanderlust. Queequeg practices an alien fictional religion and constantly engages in feats of bravado intimidating to the white and ethnically-European protagonist but befriends him and shows no resentment at treatment by white societies. Melville's text describes him as “George Washington cannibalistically developed”.

1. A person, fictional character, or other foil who literally or symbolically fulfills one or more of the roles Queequeg played in Moby-Dick such as the noble savage, Entwicklungsroman guru or exemplar, or racially-inflected spear carrier role.