Queequeg is a character in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by American author Herman Melville. The story outlines his royal, Polynesian descent, as well as his desire to "visit Christendom" that led him to leave his homeland. Queequeg is visually distinguished by his striking facial tattoos and tan skin. Ishmael encounters Queequeg in Chapter Three and they become unlikely friends. Once aboard the whaling ship the Pequod, Queequeg becomes the harpooner for the mate Starbuck.
Familial and cultural history
Queequeg is native to the fictional island of Kokovoko (also known as Rokovoko), an "island far away to the West and South",
While the descriptions of Queequeg's tattoos are dissimilar to those of the Māori Chief, Ellis claims that Melville took inspiration from Te Pēhi Kupe. The parallels and distinctions between his source of inspiration are important to Ellis's interpretation of Queequeg. Although they are similar, Queequeg's tattoos are described in the text as more geometric and square-shaped than the Māori tattoos that are often "rounded into spirals". He sees the physical affection between the two characters as Melville moving beyond the "cultural imprints of homophobia" in literature. When Queequeg heals and is no longer presumed to die in chapter 110, the book mentions how he spent many hours "carving the lid with all manner of grotesque figures and drawings...to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on his body." For example, Ishmael initially describes Queequeg as a cannibal and a savage, but soon realizes that his appearances are misleading. Vick believes that Ishmael's consideration of Queequeg that contrasts the "illusion of his darkness" with the "reality of his goodness" promotes questioning of the traditional ideas of the racial hierarchy.
- A version of Queequeg appears as a character in the Futurama episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid".
- On The X-Files, Special Agent Dana Scully named her dog Queequeg (last appearance Season 3 Episode 22) after the Moby-Dick character. The name was also taken as an email handle by Scully. In Season 11 Episode 7, Scully tells a security company representative her password to reset her home alarm is Queequeg.
- Queequeg's is the name of a coffee chain in the video game universe of Deus Ex: Invisible War. Its supposed in-game rival chain is named Pequod's.
- An alien species called Weequay is introduced in Return of the Jedi, whose denomination and physical appearance is a clear nod to Melville's Queequeg.
- In the eleventh book of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the main characters, the Baudelaires, board a submarine named the Queequeg, operated by a crew who wear portraits of Herman Melville on their uniforms.
- In the South Korean indie gacha game Limbus Company, one of the 12 playable characters is a young woman named Ishmael. Her backstory, like that of every protagonist in the game, mirrors that of her literary counterpart. Queequeg is an important figure in Ishmael's backstory, and is depicted as an intimidating, muscular woman who had taken Ishmael under her wing, and with whom Ishmael had formed a deeper bond.