Lit Analysis Moby Dick (2nd try)

Due to people not being able to read the first post, I decided to post it again.

Literary Analysis: Moby Dick

1)      Ishmael is a sailor with the heart of a whaler.  He has sailed several trips on seas but has never as a whaler.  He makes his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he finds a whaler’s in.  In the inn, he meets a cannibal named Queequeg (and soon agrees to go whaling with him).  The two take a ferry to Nantucket and find a ship called the Pequod as their whaling ship.  They set sail on a Christmas day and soon learn that the ship is sailed by Captain Ahab.  It is crewed by many people of many different origins.  Ahab says that the purpose of this whaling trip is to catch the dreaded Moby Dick and take vengeance for the whale’s previous attacks.  On their journey, they sail past the Cape of Good Hope and meet several other whaling ships.  As the Pequod gets closer to where Moby Dick is supposed to be, Ahab’s insanity level begins to jump and raise.  Finally a sighting of the whale, the whale escapes.  The next day, the whale is harpooned but escapes yet again.  The third day, Moby Dick rams the Pequod and sinks the ship.  All the whaleboats and men are caught in the vortex of the sinking ship and are sucked into the sea.  Ishmael is the only survivor being that he was far enough away from the whirlpool.  He is picked up in another ship and they sail off, the legend of Captain Ahab to live on.

2)      The biggest theme in Moby Dick is Fate.  The whole book is based around it, Ishmael meeting Queequeg, finding the Pequod in the harbor, meeting all those whaling ships while sailing in the massive oceans, even just finding Moby Dick.  All of it was part of a larger plan.  The story is just a description of what fate is.

3)      The author’s tone is tragic.  Several moments in the novel are what anybody would receive as a tragic event. 

·         Pg. 1383 (3 book collection version)  “… Fedallah incuriously and mildly eyed him; the clinging crew, at the other drifting end, could not succor him; more than enough was it for them to look to themselves.” (After the Moby Dick attack)

·         Pg. 1406 (3 book collection version) “…Ahab stooped to clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone.”

·         PG. 1407 (3 book collection version) “…and his imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it.”

4)      5 Literary Elements used in Moby Dick

Motif- Moby Dick (keeps the reader interested)

·         Pg. 1406 “Moby Dick seeks thee not.  It is thou, thou that madly sleekest him!”

·         Pg. 965 “a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men”

·         Pg. 1325 “I have here two pledges that I shall yet slay Moby Dick and survive it.”

Symbol-Moby Dick (Fate)

·         Pg. 986 “…were ready to give chase to Moby Dick”

·         Pg. 1006 “…might blow Moby Dick into the devious zigzag world-circle…”

·         Pg. 1131 “…a dark story concerning Moby Dick…”

Point of View-From Ishmael

·         Pg. 827 “I had been astonished at first catching a glimpse of…”

·         Pg. 850 “We now passed the Tomahawk from one to the other…”

·         Pg. 1009 “I have personally…”

Flashback-The whole book

·         The whole book is a flashback from what I can tell and from other aids.  Ishmael is telling this story from a future time.

Dialogue-Throughout the book (keeps you interested)

·         Pg. 1065 “My wrist is sprained with ye!”

·         Pg. 1257 “Ship, old ship! My old head shakes to think of thee.”

·         Pg. 1402 “Oh! Ahab, not too late is it, even now, the third day, to desist. See!”

Characterization Questions

1.      Examples of direct characterization

·         My 2 Examples of direct characterization are the entire chapters of 26 and 27 titled “Knights and Squires.” In these two chapters, all the characters in the Inn at that moment are described in detail.

Pg. 914 “…Starbuck, a native of Nantucket, and a Quaker by descent.  He was a long, earnest man, and though born on an icy coast, seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes…”

Pg. 918 “Stubb was the second mate.  He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence, according to local usage, was called a Cape Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky…”

            Examples of indirect characterization

·         The whole novel is indirectly characterizing Ishmael.  What he thinks, hears, and does.  He is the narrator.

2.      The author’s syntax and diction really don’t change because the whole story is based around 1 character.  There are points where it focuses on Ahab or StarBuck but even then, the syntax and diction don’t change.

3.      The Protagonist is relatively dynamic.  Over the course of the novel, Ishmael changes how he acts and feels towards certain things and people.  He emerges as a new person at the end being the only survivor of the Moby Dick attack.  He would also be considered a round character.  Ishmael brings in a lot of outside knowledge and explains stuff relatively well with it.  Just this alone makes him a round character.

4.      I feel like I didn’t really meet him as much as get inside his head.  The whole story was about what he thought about people and his knowledge about whales.  Ishmael was just a conveyer of knowledge.

·         Chapter 27 (Ishmael talking about Stubb) “Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests.