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{http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:lo7976X_wcgOVM:http://www.theglitteringeye.com/images/mobydick.jpg}Moby Dick By: Herman Melville
{http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:lo7976X_wcgOVM:http://www.theglitteringeye.com/images/mobydick.jpg} {http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:i19QuThc8a4TFM:http://www.litkicks.com/Images/ahab.jpg} See full size image {http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:nrx7UmbHbZXvvM:http://wwwedu.ge.ch/po/stael/anglais/g1/Read/moby-dick.jpg}
Author Background:
present day.
Literary Period/Country:
Moby Dickwas published first in 1851, a year before Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. American literature was surrounded by good, scandalous, uprising books and Melville used past experiences to help him write this novel. The sinking of the Nantucket whale ship Essex and the killing of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick inspired Melville to write this story along with his personal sailing experience. Melville also hoped to capture a more compelling essence to the whaling industry because he felt that previous authors could not illustrate it as well as he could.
Moby Dick: The great white sperm whale, considered the one true example of evil by Ahab.
Starbuck: First mate of Pequod. He often questions Ahab’s intentions because he is more Christian and reserved.
Sea island.
Stubb: The second mate of the Pequod. He leaves everything to fate.
Tashtego: Stub’s harpooner, a Gay Head Indian from Martha’s Vineyard. He does many skilled tasks on the vessel.
Flask: Third mate on the Pequod, very confrontational. He has the nickname “King-Post” because he resembles a short, square timber.
physically enormous.
Pip: Young black boy who becomes insane after being left at sea for a period of time. He also has some prophet-like abilities.
Fedallah: He is a prophet for Ahab with a strange appearance.
Father Maple: A former whale man and now a preacher for the Whaleman’s Chapel. He uses Jonah and the whale to address the whale men’s views.
Captain Boomer: Captain of the Samuel Enderby. He lost his arm to Moby Dick but is happy to have escaped with just that damage. He reacts differently than how Ahab did to being attacked by Moby Dick.
find disaster.
Themes:
Knowledge- Also the lack there of. Ishmael tries, even from the very beginning of the novel, to compare the nature of the whale with many different careers already known to man but because of this it shows just how much humans do not know. Like how one can not see far into the ocean. Moby Dick is seen as a God figure in that what he does and will do are unknown to man and trying to figure it out would possibly lead to disaster, like Captain Ahab found out.
Whaling- Thistheme follows the social hierarchy. The vessel Ishmael is on has crew membersfrom all around the world, which seems equal and fair but really it is not. Wages are based on skill and each white shipmate is dependent on a nonwhite harpooner who does most of the dirtier work.
Plot Summary:
the voyage.
Queequeg falls ill and has the ship’s carpenter make him a coffin, which after he recovers, becomes a replacement life preserver. Fedallah prophesisesthat Ahab will see two hearses and then be killed by hemp rope,he misinterprets these for land and believes that he will be safe and successful in his quest. A typhoon hits the vessel, catching it on fire and Ahab takes this as a sign of success but when Moby Dick is sighted he is harpooned and attacks Ahab’s boat. The last day Moby Dick is sighted again along with a disturbing surprise. Moby Dick attacks the Pequodand sinks it. Ahab is caught in a harpoon line and hurled into the waters to his death. Ishmael, who was thrown from his boat during the chase, escapes the whirlpool and he is the only survivor. He uses Queequeg’s coffin as a raft and is saved by the Rachel, who was looking for any of her crewmen earlier lost to Moby Dick.
Literary devices:

{http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:lo7976X_wcgOVM:http://www.theglitteringeye.com/images/mobydick.jpg}
Author Background:
present day. *Information cited from the book*
Literary Period/Country:
Moby Dickwas published first in 1851, a year before Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. American literature was surrounded by good, scandalous, uprising books and Melville used past experiences to help him write this novel. The sinking of the Nantucket whale ship Essex and the killing of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick inspired Melville to write this story along with his personal sailing experience. Melville also hoped to capture a more compelling essence to the whaling industry because he felt that previous authors could not illustrate it as well as he could.
Moby Dick: The great white sperm whale, considered the one true example of evil by Ahab.
Starbuck: First mate of Pequod. He often questions Ahab’s intentions because he is more Christian and reserved.
Sea island.
Stubb: The second mate of the Pequod. He leaves everything to fate.
Tashtego: Stub’s harpooner, a Gay Head Indian from Martha’s Vineyard. He does many skilled tasks on the vessel.
Flask: Third mate on the Pequod, very confrontational. He has the nickname “King-Post” because he resembles a short, square timber.
physically enormous.
Pip: Young black boy who becomes insane after being left at sea for a period of time. He also has some prophet-like abilities.
Fedallah: He is a prophet for Ahab with a strange appearance.
Knowledge- Also the lack there of. Ishmael tries, even from the very beginning of the novel, to compare the nature of the whale with many different careers already known to man but because of this it shows just how much humans do not know. Like how one can not see far into the ocean. Moby Dick is seen as a God figure in that what he does and will do are unknown to man and trying to figure it out would possibly lead to disaster, like Captain Ahab found out.
Fate- Many of the crew members believe in fate and prophesies; also Ishmael makes many references to fate leading to the assumption of how inevitable the Pequod’s failure is. Ahab manipulates his crew member’s belief in faith to persuade them that it is their destiny to find Moby Dick. Melville also uses many foreshadowing techniques throughout the story.
dirtier work.
Plot
Plot Summary:
Ishmael opens the story deciding that he will aboard his first whaling voyage. He travels to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he stays at the Spouter Inn, a whaler’s Inn. Ishmael has to share a bed with a rather strange character, Queequeg, a harpooner from the South Pacific. After a few uncomfortable nights, the two men become close and decide to go on a whaling vessel together. They take a ferry to Nantucket and aboard the Pequod. They first meet CaptainAhab on the deck of the vessel and he announces his revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale who took Ahab’s leg. He says that he will give a gold doubloon to who ever spots the whale. The odd crew encounters other whaling vessels and Captain Ahab always inquires about any sightings of Moby Dick. One vessel, the Jeroboam, has a crazed prophet who has predicted doom for anyone who tries to look for Moby Dick. His predictions hold true because some of the crew members encounter disaster along the voyage.
Queequeg falls ill and has the ship’s carpenter make him a coffin, which after he recovers, becomes a replacement life preserver. Fedallah prophesisesthat Ahab will see two hearses and then be killed by hemp rope,he misinterprets these for land and believes that he will be safe and successful in his quest. A typhoon hits the vessel, catching it on fire and Ahab takes this as a sign of success but when Moby Dick is sighted he is harpooned and attacks Ahab’s boat. The last day Moby Dick is sighted again along with a disturbing surprise. Moby Dick attacks the Pequodand sinks it. Ahab is caught in a harpoon line and hurled into the waters to his death. Ishmael, who was thrown from his boat during the chase, escapes the whirlpool and he is the only survivor. He uses Queequeg’s coffin as a raft and is saved by the Rachel, who was looking for any of her crewmen earlier lost to Moby Dick.
Literary devices:
Foreshadow/death:
Page 6, "By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air"

Fate- Many of the crew members believe in fate and prophesies; also Ishmael makes many references to fate leading to the assumption of how inevitable the Pequod’s failure is. Ahab manipulates his crew member’s belief in faith to persuade them that it is their destiny to find Moby Dick. Melville also uses many foreshadowing techniques throughout the story.
Whaling- Thistheme follows the social hierarchy. The vessel Ishmael is on has crew membersfrom all around the world, which seems equal and fair but really it is not. Wages are based on skill and each white shipmate is dependent on a nonwhite harpooner who does most of the dirtier work.
Ishmael opens the story deciding that he will aboard his first whaling voyage. He travels to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he stays at the Spouter Inn, a whaler’s Inn. Ishmael has to share a bed with a rather strange character, Queequeg, a harpooner from the South Pacific. After a few uncomfortable nights, the two men become close and decide to go on a whaling vessel together. They take a ferry to Nantucket and aboard the Pequod. They first meet CaptainAhab on the deck of the vessel and he announces his revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale who took Ahab’s leg. He says that he will give a gold doubloon to who ever spots the whale. The odd crew encounters other whaling vessels and Captain Ahab always inquires about any sightings of Moby Dick. One vessel, the Jeroboam, has a crazed prophet who has predicted doom for anyone who tries to look for Moby Dick. His predictions hold true because some of the crew members encounter disaster along the voyage.
Queequeg falls ill and has the ship’s carpenter make him a coffin, which after he recovers, becomes a replacement life preserver. Fedallah prophesisesthat Ahab will see two hearses and then be killed by hemp rope,he misinterprets these for land and believes that he will be safe and successful in his quest. A typhoon hits the vessel, catching it on fire and Ahab takes this as a sign of success but when Moby Dick is sighted he is harpooned and attacks Ahab’s boat. The last day Moby Dick is sighted again along with a disturbing surprise. Moby Dick attacks the Pequodand sinks it. Ahab is caught in a harpoon line and hurled into the waters to his death. Ishmael, who was thrown from his boat during the chase, escapes the whirlpool and he is the only survivor. He uses Queequeg’s coffin as a raft and is saved by the Rachel, who was looking for any of her crewmen earlier lost to Moby Dick.
Literary devices:Plot Summary:
Foreshadow/death:
Page 6, "By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air"

{http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:lo7976X_wcgOVM:http://www.theglitteringeye.com/images/mobydick.jpg}
Author Background:
present day. *Information cited from the book*
Literary Period/Country:
Moby Dickwas published first in 1851, a year before Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. American literature was surrounded by good, scandalous, uprising books and Melville used past experiences to help him write this novel. The sinking of the Nantucket whale ship Essex and the killing of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick inspired Melville to write this story along with his personal sailing experience. Melville also hoped to capture a more compelling essence to the whaling industry because he felt that previous authors could not illustrate it as well as he could.
Moby Dick: The great white sperm whale, considered the one true example of evil by Ahab.
Starbuck: First mate of Pequod. He often questions Ahab’s intentions because he is more Christian and reserved.
Sea island.
Stubb: The second mate of the Pequod. He leaves everything to fate.
Tashtego: Stub’s harpooner, a Gay Head Indian from Martha’s Vineyard. He does many skilled tasks on the vessel.
Flask: Third mate on the Pequod, very confrontational. He has the nickname “King-Post” because he resembles a short, square timber.
physically enormous.
Pip: Young black boy who becomes insane after being left at sea for a period of time. He also has some prophet-like abilities.
Fedallah: He is a prophet for Ahab with a strange appearance.
Captain Boomer: Captain of the Samuel Enderby. He lost his arm to Moby Dick but is happy to have escaped with just that damage. He reacts differently than how Ahab did to being attacked by Moby Dick.
Gabriel: A Shaker sailor on the Jeroboam who prophesied that anyone who would go after Moby Dick would find disaster.
__
Themes:
__
Knowledge- Also the lack there of. Ishmael tries, even from the very beginning of the novel, to compare the nature of the whale with many different careers already known to man but because of this it shows just how much humans do not know. Like how one can not see far into the ocean. Moby Dick is seen as a God figure in that what he does and will do are unknown to man and trying to figure it out would possibly lead to disaster, like Captain Ahab found out.
Fate- Many of the crew members believe in fate and prophesies; also Ishmael makes many references to fate leading to the assumption of how inevitable the Pequod’s failure is. Ahab manipulates his crew member’s belief in faith to persuade them that it is their destiny to find Moby Dick. Melville also uses many foreshadowing techniques throughout the story.
Whaling- Thistheme follows the social hierarchy. The vessel Ishmael is on has crew membersfrom all around the world, which seems equal and fair but really it is not. Wages are based on skill and each white shipmate is dependent on a nonwhite harpooner who does most of the dirtier work.
the voyage.
Queequeg falls ill and has the ship’s carpenter make him a coffin, which after he recovers, becomes a replacement life preserver. Fedallah prophesisesthat Ahab will see two hearses and then be killed by hemp rope,he misinterprets these for land and believes that he will be safe and successful in his quest. A typhoon hits the vessel, catching it on fire and Ahab takes this as a sign of success but when Moby Dick is sighted he is harpooned and attacks Ahab’s boat. The last day Moby Dick is sighted again along with a disturbing surprise. Moby Dick attacks the Pequodand sinks it. Ahab is caught in a harpoon line and hurled into the waters to his death. Ishmael, who was thrown from his boat during the chase, escapes the whirlpool and he is the only survivor. He uses Queequeg’s coffin as a raft and is saved by the Rachel, who was looking for any of her crewmen earlier lost to Moby Dick.
Literary devices:

{http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:lo7976X_wcgOVM:http://www.theglitteringeye.com/images/mobydick.jpg}
Author Background:
Redburn, and White-Jacket. AfterWhite-Jacket.After his marriage present day. Cited from-
Literary Period/Country:
Moby Dickwas published first in 1851, a year before Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. American literature was surrounded by good, scandalous, uprising books and Melville used past experiences to help him write this novel. The sinking of the Nantucket whale ship Essex and the killing of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick inspired Melville to write this story along with his personal sailing experience. Melville also hoped to capture a more compelling essence to the whaling industry because he felt that previous authors could not illustrate it as well as he could.
Setting:
The main time period that the story takes place is during the 1830s or 1840s. The story is focused mainly aboard the whaling ship the Pequod, in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans tracking Moby Dick, the whale.
Characters:
Ishmael: The narrator who decides to take his sailing skills into the whaling field. He is the first character introduced but does not really have a major roll but he narrates very poetically on the nature of whaling.
Ahab: The captain of the Pequod who lost his leg to Moby Dick. He is single-minded and puts fear into his crew to have them join him. He has a wife and child back in Nantucket.
Moby Dick: The great white sperm whale, considered the one true example of evil by Ahab.
Starbuck: First mate of Pequod. He often questions Ahab’s intentions because he is more Christian and reserved.
Queequeg: Starbuck’s harpooner and the man Ishmael meets in the inn. He was once a price from a South Sea island.
Stubb: The second mate of the Pequod. He leaves everything to fate.
Tashtego: Stub’s harpooner, a Gay Head Indian from Martha’s Vineyard. He does many skilled tasks on the vessel.
Flask: Third mate on the Pequod, very confrontational. He has the nickname “King-Post” because he resembles a short, square timber.
Daggoo: Flask’s harpooner, physically enormous.
Pip: Young black boy who becomes insane after being left at sea for a period of time. He also has some prophet-like abilities.
Fedallah: He is a prophet for Ahab with a strange appearance.
Peleg: A retired whale man of Nantucket. He and Captain Bildad take care of hiring the crew.
Bildad: Another retired whale man. Both Bildadand Peleg have different views than the normal pacifism known for Quakers.
Father Maple: A former whale man and now a preacher for the Whaleman’s Chapel. He uses Jonah and the whale to address the whale men’s views.
Captain Boomer: Captain of the Samuel Enderby. He lost his arm to Moby Dick but is happy to have escaped with just that damage. He reacts differently than how Ahab did to being attacked by Herman Melville.Moby Dick.
Gabriel: A Shaker sailor on the Jeroboam who prophesied that anyone who would go after Moby Dick would find disaster.
__
Themes:
__
Knowledge- Also the lack there of. Ishmael tries, even from the very beginning of the novel, to compare the nature of the whale with many different careers already known to man but because of this it shows just how much humans do not know. Like how one can not see far into the ocean. Moby Dick is seen as a God figure in that what he does and will do are unknown to man and trying to figure it out would possibly lead to disaster, like Captain Ahab found out.
Fate- Many of the crew members believe in fate and prophesies; also Ishmael makes many references to fate leading to the assumption of how inevitable the Pequod’s failure is. Ahab manipulates his crew member’s belief in faith to persuade them that it is their destiny to find Moby Dick. Melville also uses many foreshadowing techniques throughout the story.
Whaling- Thistheme follows the social hierarchy. The vessel Ishmael is on has crew membersfrom all around the world, which seems equal and fair but really it is not. Wages are based on skill and each white shipmate is dependent on a nonwhite harpooner who does most of the dirtier work.
Ishmael opens the story deciding that he will aboard his first whaling voyage. He travels to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he stays at the Spouter Inn, a whaler’s Inn. Ishmael has to share a bed with a rather strange character, Queequeg, a harpooner from the South Pacific. After a few uncomfortable nights, the two men become close and decide to go on a whaling vessel together. They take a ferry to Nantucket and aboard the Pequod. They first meet CaptainAhab on the deck of the vessel and he announces his revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale who took Ahab’s leg. He says that he will give a gold doubloon to who ever spots the whale. The odd crew encounters other whaling vessels and Captain Ahab always inquires about any sightings of Moby Dick. One vessel, the Jeroboam, has a crazed prophet who has predicted doom for anyone who tries to look for Moby Dick. His predictions hold true because some of the crew members encounter disaster along the voyage.
Queequeg falls ill and has the ship’s carpenter make him a coffin, which after he recovers, becomes a replacement life preserver. Fedallah prophesisesthat Ahab will see two hearses and then be killed by hemp rope,he misinterprets these for land and believes that he will be safe and successful in his quest. A typhoon hits the vessel, catching it on fire and Ahab takes this as a sign of success but when Moby Dick is sighted he is harpooned and attacks Ahab’s boat. The last day Moby Dick is sighted again along with a disturbing surprise. Moby Dick attacks the Pequodand sinks it. Ahab is caught in a harpoon line and hurled into the waters to his death. Ishmael, who was thrown from his boat during the chase, escapes the whirlpool and he is the only survivor. He uses Queequeg’s coffin as a raft and is saved by the Rachel, who was looking for any of her crewmen earlier lost to Moby Dick.
Literary devices:
Foreshadow/death:
Page 6, "By reason of these things, then, the whaling voyage was welcome; the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, mid most of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air"
Page 8, "'The Spouter-Inn:--Peter Coffin. Coffin?--Spouter?--Rather ominous in that particular connexion, though I."
Simile:
Page 17, "'Landlord,' said I, going up to him as cool as Mt. Hecla in a snow storm."
Page 30, "But as for Queequeg--why, Queequeg sat there among them--at the head of the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an icicle."
Page 107, "Certain I am, however, that a king's head is solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad."
Rhetorical Questions:
Page 30, "Yet, in spite of this, nowhere in all America will you find more patrician-like houses; parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford. Whence came they? How planted upon this once scraggy scoria of a country?"
Page 50, "I was a good Christian...How then could I unite with this wild idolater in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now...that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth-pagans and all included-can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood?..."
Page 106, "The whale no famous author, and whaling no famous chronicler?...No good blood in their veins?...Whaling not respectable?...The whale never figured in any grand imposing way?...No dignity in whaling?" This is a pretty interesting section.
Personal Review:
I really enjoyed Moby Dick. I believe it was a good novel showing the life of whaling the beauty within it. Ishmael turns a dry topic into a poetic romance with many twists and symbolic meanings in his narration. Moby Dick, first shown as a monster, becomes a very ideal example of how little men know. The limit of knowledge theme was my most favorite to pick out because of how it structured the characters. Moby Dick was shown as a God figure,Queequeg was at first a stereotype of a cannibalistic native for Ishmael, but soon he found out that Queequeg was a very knowledgeable man and friend. Ahab illustrated how crazy one can become in the quest of knowledge and power and how lack of knowledge can lead to certain disasters. Captain Boomer was Ahab's counterpart and showed how certain parts of life can be taken on a more knowledgeable outcome and he became happy with life where Ahab saw nothing but revenge.
Herman Melville captured the essence of whaling that only one who has experienced it before can retell. He takes the unlearned audience and gives them more knowledge through a narrator that has a similar level of experience. Melville uses very flowing diction and poetic style to give the story a vibrant edge, if not this could have been very dry and boring. The reader is able to take many things from this story, not just about whaling. It is a very good read with a very dramatic and dangerous plot.

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Author Background:
present day. Cited from- Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

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Author Background:
Herman Melville was born in New York in 1819. He was deprived of any higher education because of his father’s death. He taught school, sailed to Liverpool, and went on whaling voyages. He also lived among cannibal Typee natives. Melville was jailed in Tahiti for mutiny, he escaped and a whale ship took him to Hawaii. He wrote travel romance novels based on these travels: Typee, Mardi, Omoo, Redburn, and White-Jacket. After his marriage in 1847 Melville’s books sold poorly. He died in 1891. After Billy Budd, his last novel, was published in 1924 a Melville revival hit the book stores and continues to the present day.

Welcome to Your New Wiki!
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