who waver on the edge between life and death, whether literarily or metaphorically throughout Moby Dick. For example, during Queequeg's illness, he prepares for death and in fact remains in his own coffin waiting for the illness to overtake him, yet it never does. (Melville. 500). The coffin itself becomes a transitional element when the carpenter converts it into a life buoy and it thus becomes the symbol of the saving of a life and the ending of a life. Several of the minor characters in the novel also exist in highly transitional states between life and death. Another example is when Pippin jumps to his death from the whaling boat and is saved by dumb luck, yet he loses his sanity and behaves as if part of him, the "infinite of his soul", had already died; essentially, Pippin awaits death. This theme is further explored through the blacksmith, who primarily works on the sea to escape life, after his family had died. He exists on the sea primarily as a passage before he dies.
             Starbuck is the chief mate of t
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