MDDM Comparing Wicks and Ishmael as narrators

[Terrance]

There are obvious differences and similarities, just to note some of the
obvious similarities here: 

 First, if we consider only Ishmael and Wicks  as narrators and
characters of their respective tales for the time being (and this is
only a small part of both narratives): both Wicks and Ishmael are not
the only narrators of the novel, in fact, both are  "marginal" (like
Wicks, Ishmael's marginal status is the key to his narrative)  narrators
and outcasts. Both are self-conscious narrators. Both narratives are
retrospective: the narrator being situated between direct experiences in
the past and the present recreative telling;  both function as the
implied author's statement about both art and story telling, its limits
and powers. And about truth and lies / fiction and history (a major
question in M-D is, why does Ishmael have creative faculty while Ahab
lacks it?).  Both narratives are unreliable. Both Ishmael and Wicks 
(Melville's term Unvarnished--Typee) "varnish the truth"  and they like
to tell tall-tales (an American tradition). Both exaggerate their own
exploits and are excessively concerned with themselves and how they
function in the tales. Both are in disguise and the characters of their
tales are, at times, projectections of themselves or other characters
they create in the fiction--this is particularly clear in the more
fantastic chapters and scenes.  Both are part of the action and yet
detached observers of it. Both travel to strange places on ships, both
are considered mad or near mad at the start of the adventures and both
begin their Quest East to get away from the metropolitan life that is
threatening their lives. Both tales (now to use a Pynchon term, are
Stencilized) and  are extended, fleshed out, embellished, enhanced,
focused by the thematic interests of the narrator and Implied Author. 
Neither narrator's POV or philosophy is aligned with the author,
however, the ironic distance that the author creates between himself and
the narrator does expose the "implied author's" thoughts and ideas or
POV or attitude about or on many subjects, including philosophical and
religious ones. The connection to DQ & Co. is evidence that both
narratives include the picaresque.  
Both narrators surrender, relinquish or lose control of the narrative to
"staged" dramas during the tale, i.e., M-D Chapter 40-- "(Foresail rises
and discovers the watch standing, lounging, leaning, and lying in
various attitudes, all singing in chorus.)" 
and regain control of it. Both narrators have didactic objectives, both
are preachers and teachers.