Literary notes about blubber (AI summary)
In literature “blubber” is employed with a dual significance. On one hand, it appears as a literal substance—whale or seal fat prized for its nourishing, warming, and practical properties in arctic and seafaring narratives, as when characters describe hauling a steaming chunk of it or using it to fuel lamps ([1], [2], [3]). On the other, the term is also used metaphorically to evoke excessive crying or lamentation, often to underscore a character’s vulnerability or to cast a humorous light on their emotional excess ([4], [5], [6]). This layered usage not only highlights its tangible value in survival contexts but also enriches character dynamics by linking physical substance with emotional expression.
- He returned immediately with a rich, odorous, steaming piece of blubber in his hand.
— from The Giant of the North: Pokings Round the Pole by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne - the whale blubber which we have used very sparingly is now exhausted.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - Its flesh is the great staple of food, while its blubber supplies the Eskimo lamps, and its skin serves countless useful purposes.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - He was not going to blubber before a set of strangers.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - Come, come, don’t be silly, don’t blubber, I was laughing, you know.”
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It’s well for you to set there and blubber like a baby—it’s fitten for you, after the way you’ve acted.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
