Free College Essays - Plot Sequence of Melville’s Moby Dick

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Moby-Dick, like any other novel, is complete with a plot sequence which essentially “maps” the layout of the story line. In the plot sequence, there are five major groups. Those five groups are the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and finally the resolution. Melville does an outstanding job of describing and conveying these in a flowing matter that is intense at some points, but surpassingly boring at others.

The plot sequence of Moby-Dick can be summarized easily when it is broken up and analyzed. While the exposition and rising action may be a little lengthy and at some times rather monotonous, the climax is very intense. But the reader will probably gain the most insight into what the novel means overall from the falling action and resolution.

During the exposition, Ishmael describes himself and why he plans on joining a whaling voyage at sea so as to sort of introduce us to him and to set the stage for other characters to be introduced such as Queequeg at the Spouter Inn.

As for the rising action, this takes up most of the novel, at least three fourths of it anyway. Many adventures are described to us from Ishmael as the story progresses. Some of the more notable events that take place include when Ishmael and Ahab first meet and the almost frightened feeling that takes over Ishmael, when Ahab describes the purpose of his voyage, when various ships are encountered such as the Enderby and the Rachel, and when the Pequod is overtaken by a typhoon. All these events and a few others not mentioned help to build the rising action and gain more and more interest from the reader.

The climax is definitely one of the most intense sections of the book, however not one of the longer. It lasts for a good three chapters, and keeps the reader focussed in on every detail, unlike other parts of the book that can get so repetitive and boring it’s unbelievable. The climax consists of the main chase and battle with Moby-Dick himself. In this part of the novel, each of three days are discussed. On the first day of the chase, the men spear the whale with their harpoons, but without success. Also, Ahab’s boat is crushed by the white whale. The second day proves to be a bit more successful.

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