Homosexuality portrayed in the novel, Moby-Dick, was used many times over the 135 chapters. Ishmael's encounters with Queequeg, and their subsequent "marriage" challenges the controversial lines of male identity in the mid-nineteenth-century. Controversial lines were in fact crossed many times in this book, and Moby-Dick critics express deep concern in the way Melville uses Queequeg as a vessel to explore homosexuality and push it along with underlying tones throughout the novel.
             "Melville's exploitation of denotation and connotation is extremely vital in a book of such length and with so many views. Queequeg's dilemma throughout the novel with the sailors is whether or not he is in fact a cannibal, or really a savage by heart"(Davis). He is a lover of flesh, which can technically make him a cannibal. The way Melville expresses cannibalism is "as a lover of all flesh", male of female. Thusly, the dominant reading of American literature by people all over the world was being conveyed and thought of in a way that was indescribable and very inappropriate for the times that the novel was written in.
             Many of the names of the Inns that Ishmael looks into staying at also convey a sort of homosexual appearance in just a few of their names. The Crossed Harpoon Inn could be perceived as a fork in the road as to whether or not Queequeg is actually straight or in fact really homosexual and doesn't really understand it all yet. The Spouter Inn could be used to symbolize how lovers often "spout" off to each other, maybe as a confidant or something of another nature. Most people perceive the Spouter Inn to have something with the male genitalia, and how it may be used in sexual intercourse with two men.
             The church conveys a sort of dilemma all in itself. The name of the church is, "The Trap" which could mean a number of things to many dif
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