ISU Essay

Doctor Noyes: Not the right man for the job





Ben Cousins






ENG 4UE-02
Rockland District High School
October 14, 2008

The fictional novel, Not Wanted on the Voyage, by Timothy Findley, is the story of Noah’s Ark but told in a different perspective. For those not familiar with this story, it is about a man named Noah who is told by God (or Yaweh as he is named in this novel) to build an ark and put two of every animal on the planet (one male and one female) for a great flood is approaching. In this novel, Noah is portrayed as an animal hating, single minded man who abuses his power. For these reasons, this is why Mrs. Noyes, who is the opposite, should have been the one to captain the ark.

Doctor Noah Noyes was portrayed as being the quintessential animal hater who often preformed sacrifices of animals, in fact many animals around the family farm fear him for this reason. Mottyl, the family cat, was one of those animals. She is twenty years old and is blind and partially deaf; all of her offspring have been either sacrificed by Noah or killed during some of his experiments.

“Another experiment: excuse me and thank you...” he would say, reaching into Mottyl’s nest and removing one of her kittens. There was nothing she could do to stop him. She had bitten and scratched him and bloodied him in every way a cat could find, but in the end he always won the day, no matter where she hid her nest or what her defences were. She did, of course, have one way to stop him. She could give up having kittens- if only she knew how.
(Findley, 17)

There are many other instances where Dr. Noyes shows his displeasure towards animals. For example, towards the end of the novel, when Mrs. Noyes and Lucy gather the fire breathing demons in order to take over the top of the ship. Mr. Noyes sees the critters in a burlap sack and immediately assumes that there is something bad inside the bag and throws it over the edge of the ark. Although his assumption was correct it could have been anything inside including the Hannah’s newborn baby.

It happened so quickly that none of the conspirators could even protest. And the demons- not at all recognizing what was happening to them- thought they were just being hoisted and slung- so that, as they whirled out over the railed and into the sizzling storm of snow, they cried with delight. Long after they had sunk beneath the waters, Mrs. Noyes came out of her shock and looked at Japeth as if he might be striding towards the demons, and the deed still undone- and she said; “please don’t, they’re our friends.
(Findley, 293)

Someone who takes kittens and other animals to do experiments on them should definitely not be the captain of the ship that carries the only remaining two animals of every species on the planet. One single death would result in the extinction of that species.

Mrs. Noyes is the complete opposite of an animal hater, she is the one often defends the animals and tries desperately to stop Doctor Noyes from taking the lives of the farm animals. She tried desperately to stop the sacrifice of the unicorn. But when she could not stop it, she stayed with the dead unicorn until long after it happened.

She stood up now, and laid the Unicorn aside- very gently- carefully.
Undoing the ribbons that had held her ki-mono about her and releasing the great wide sash at its waist, she stepped from this garment-already clothed in another- her gown of long bronze feathers.
(Findley, 271)

When Doctor Noyes received captaincy from Yaweh, everyone else and only cared about himself. He often made a decision that was better for him than the overall family. When the ark first went afloat, Dr. Noyes divides the family into two groups one that lives on the top of the ark (he was included in this one) and the other live with the rest of the animals. He even says that it would be best to stay away from each other until the storm has subsided, even for dinner.

“Your duties, madam, will predicate a regimen out of kilter with the regimen here on the upper deck. It would be ridiculous to require that you dine at eight, when you will dine at six- or even five”
“But we never dined at eight,” said Mrs. Noyes. “In all our life together- five hundred years! – we have never dined at eight.”
“Till now” said Noah- and shrugged
(Findley, 202)

Dr. Noyes seemed to be notorious for his selfish ways throughout the novel, he even ate many of things that were on ration for everyone as if they had an endless supply of them.

Eggs, milk and butter were at a premium and the supply of cheese was also depleted. All of these things were essentials in the preferred diet of Doctor Noyes. [...] Mrs Noyes would say; “but you’ve only just had two dozen eggs yesterday...” and “... we’re on a milk ration, too, you know. And- as for butter- I haven’t had the time to do any churning [...] The feeding of all these animals? Every day and twice a day! And you have the gall to come down here and ask for milk and butter! Shame on you! Shame!” (Parentheses mine)
(Findley, 276)

It is impossible for the captain of a ship to be selfish and effective.

If Mrs. Noyes were to be captain of the ark, her unselfish ways would not be comparable to that of Doctor Noyes’ captaincy. She put the wellness of the others in front that of her own. She risked her life in order to save Lotte and then again to bury her. She even gave the last bits of Brussels sprouts and cabbage to the members of the upper deck, even though they seemed to be rivals.

Shem could not find an answer to this that he dared speak aloud, since the unspeakable answer was yes- that, when all was said and done, he had come down to steal the last morsel from anyone’s mouth, if that morsel happened to be cabbage. [...] “Very well,” she said. “You may have one cabbage and twelve Brussels sprouts- but only on the express condition that they pass directly into Hannah’s hands.”
(Findley, 278)

So as you can see, Mrs. Noyes had many of the good qualities that are required for a good captain. These same qualities Doctor Noyes did not have the qualities that lacked on the ark and ultimately resulted in the chaos towards the end. Doctor Noyes was an animal hating selfish man, things that should not be evident in the leader of an important ship, especially the ark.


Bibliography
Findley, Timothy. Not Wanted on the Voyage. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 1984.
Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 26 May 2008. 13 October 2008 .