AHAB in moby dick

In Moby Dick, it follows the accounts of a young man named Ishmael. Ishmael is looking for money in the whaling business, the same thing as hunting game, but for whale blubber and whatever else they have to offer. At a tavern, he signs up to go whaling upon a ship named the Pequod, under the captaining of a man named Ahab. At first, Ishmael thinks he’s just your average whaling trip, but soon realizes there’s a deeper story behind Ahab. Ahab’s true intentions are to find a specific whale called Moby Dick. The whale is famous for sinking hundreds of whaling ships, and one was Ahab’s previous ship. In that process, Ahab also lost part of his leg at the knee. As you can imagine, most of the story Ahab is almost insane. At nothing anyone calls

An allusion is a reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.   Writers often use biblical and mythological allusions to which their readers are familiar.  In Moby Dick, Herman Melville frequently uses biblical and mythological allusions.  With these allusions the reader begins to understand the topic of discussion and is also exposed to the wisdom and knowledge Melville possess.

The crew grew in eagerness as Ahab reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden doubloon that glistened in the sun. Previously, the crew had no interaction with Ahab; they only knew him by odd sightings and hyperbolic tales. Yet there he stood, with a single doubloon held high into the heavens, as he declared: “Whoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white headed whale with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke – look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys” (Melville 233). With this golden doubloon, Ahab convinces his crew to hunt for the great ravaging monster known as Moby-Dick. In a story about implications and perspectives, where narratives shift from character to character, what does a doubloon mean to the crew? Melville paints the crew of the Pequod into a microcosm of actual society; every character represents some human facet and the golden coin nailed to the mast peers into the souls of each shipmate. The coin’s imprinted imagery is interpreted differently by each crew member, which leads the reader to ask what this piece of gold means. Why is a crew following a monomaniacal tyrant into the depths of hell? Although the coin shows us that each character has a specific motive for the actions he commits, ultimately the reader realizes that meaning is not integral to any single situation - like the hunt for the whale - every man must hunt for his meaning.

At the conclusion of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and after three days of chasing the whale, the flag atop the Pequod’s main mast had become weathered and torn. Ahab instructs Tashtego to mount a new flag on the main mast and the Indian from Gay Head Massachusetts promptly complies. Tashtego’s compliance to his captain’s order is so diligent that even after the whale has struck the mortal blow against the ship, Tashetego continues to hammer in the flag as he and the mast sink into the sea (Melville 531, 535). The compliance to his captain and willingness to do what Ahab has instructed, instead of trying to scamper for his life, is testament to the Gay Header’s obedience. However, his obedience says as much about the control of the captain over

We as people normally don’t worry about human nature because it’s a part of our mind. Most things that are a part of our mind we don’t worry about. Things like our dreams, our thoughts, our imagination, our subconscious. All these things are a part of our brain, yet we don’t think about them because they are always with us and the same is true for human nature. When we learn an aspect of human nature we question it, it’s only natural. We apply it to ourselves, see where we fit in on this wondrous new discovery and so you learn something about yourself. For example, after I read The Lord of the Flies, I was intrigued by the symbolism that Jack’s character represented, which was a savage, animalistic behavior. I was also intrigued how such behavior was referred to as the “beast” and how it was in everyone. It makes sense that such violent behavior is a part of human nature because it’s basically the basis of human nature, where everything built up from. It got me thinking about the structures of society that keep this “beast” caged in. It got me thinking, what IS this beast. The beast is in us, every single one of us. From this beast we can learn things about ourselves, about the world, our lives. Anger is but a small part of the beast, but we can learn from anger. We can learn what we don’t like, what not to do, what others don’t like, what is right, what is wrong. From anger we learn, but anger can be controlled. If

One of these inner conflicts is Animal’s attraction with women, because he cannot deny his vehemently human feelings toward human women. Seen as a lesser being by many people, he sees “the warnings in the faces of old women who caught me looking at [Nisha]. Animal mating with human female, it’s unnatural, but I’ve no choice but to be unnatural” (78). His urges to be with a human woman give away his humanity to himself, no matter how much he does not want it to. Animal is stuck between loving and lusting for Nisha, but if he stays an Animal he would never be able to act on his thoughts. This inner conflict within him brings out his humanity because of how the thought of him and Nisha being together gives him hope, a human emotion. His philosophy on his own humanity is also affected by his perceptions on other events and ideas. While talking to Ma Franci, she mentions that, “To be trapped in a human body… is hell, if you happen to be an angel” and Animal sympathizes “with these angels. To be trapped in an animal body is hell, if you dream of being human” (210). At this moment in the novel, Animal is accepting that his soul is human. He may be inside the body of an ‘animal’, but he acknowledges that he yearns for a human body. This yearning inherently makes him human, because dreaming is a human trait. Animal truly discovers that he is not a human while he is hallucinating and discovers that he cannot perform basic animal functions or instincts. He is starving, but will not kill a lizard to eat it so the lizard tells him, “a broken rib may mend… but your nature you can never change. You are human, if you were an animal you would have eaten me” (346). The situation between Animal and the lizard takes place in the subconscious of Animal, due to the hallucinations, but the fact

Throughout the story, Ahab did not keep his ideals and opinions to himself as he went as far as placing a bounty of $16.00 worth of gold on Moby Dick’s head as he gives a grand speech in hopes of recruiting the men to participate in his act of vengeance as he encourages them to chant “death to Moby Dick!” (Melville pg 142.) In a drunken celebration as he ends the celebration on these chi...

Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab both are trying to seek revenge on those who did them wrong. First, Captain Ahab gets his leg bit off by a big white whale, which is called Moby Dick. Ahab tries to seek revenge on the whale by going on a ship and trying to find

Contained in the text of Moby Dick, Herman Melville uses many widely cultural symbols, stories and actions to tell the tale of a whaling ship bent on the desires of its captains abhorrence for a real, and also symbolic, creature in the form of an albino sperm whale named Moby Dick. The time is 1851 and civil unrest is looming just over the horizon: slavery is the main point of interest in American politics, the last major novel released was The Scarlet Letter, Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th president following the untimely death of then president Zachary Taylor; the Fugitive Slave Act legally mandates all runaway slaves to be returned to their owners (regardless of what state in the union they were found); and religion is a driving force that defines both social and political actions. These among other things effected and determined the cultural climate of the United States found in Moby Dick. Herman Melville uses an isolated boat analogously to create and explore a microcosm of American culture and civilization. The story of Moby Dick is more than one of revenge, but an allegory of American culture and political unrest.

While his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap. On life and death this old man walked.” (Melville 231) He is the bridge between the land and the sea, between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead and also between reason (the conscious) and instinct (unconscious). This man has undergone another type of initiation than Ishmael, namely “a philosophic, a Promethean one. With Ahab, wisdom means suffering – the consummation of his life by the fires of knowledge. In the novel, those fires are invoked in chapter 96 ‘The Try-Works’, which send to the whales’ blubber as melted by flames.” (Oltean) They are paralleled to the fires in Greek mythology, where Prometheus helped humanity by managing “to steal fire … and give it to humans” (Prometheus). Ahab’s mind is tainted by the first encounter with the white whale, losing one of his feet, event which triggers the second journey. His goal to catch the whale, but he is in fact “fighting with the destructive, implacable forces of the universe” (Oltean). He is a man at war with his obsession and the whole world