The Characters and Plot
There are numerous characters in Moby Dick, but only a few of them
have any impact on the story. A common sailor named Ishmael is the
narrator. The book, however, focuses on Captain Ahab, the one-legged
commander of the whaling ship Pequod. Ahab has sworn to kill the
gigantic whale Moby Dick, who took away his leg. Starbuck is the
first mate of the Pequod. Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo are the
three harpooners.
The story begins with Ishmael becoming restless. He decides to go
out to sea on a whaling ship. In the port of New Bedford, he meets
and shares a room with a harpooner named Queequeg. The two of them
become close friends, and agree to ship out together.
The day after they reach Nantucket, Ishmael begins searching for a
whaling ship preparing to leave harbor. Out of three ships ready to
leave, he chooses the Pequod. The owners of the ship, Captains Peleg
and Bildad are excited to hear of Queequeg from Ishmael and gladly
let him join the crew. They are told the captain of the ship is
named Ahab. Peleg and Bildad say that he is a good man, but because
of some strange illness, he is confined to his cabin.
On Christmas day, and with Ahab still in his cabin, the Pequod sets
sail in the Atlantic. As the weather begins to warm up (several
months after leaving port), Ahab is finally seen on deck. The
strangest thing about Ahab is his leg. Instead of flesh and bone, he
has a white ivory peg leg.
As the weeks wear on, Ahab starts to become friendlier. One day, he
calls the crew before him. He tells them that the sole mission of
the Pequod is to kill Moby Dick. Moby Dick is a gigantic sperm whale
with a crooked jaw and a deformed forehead. He has never been
defeated, and has attacked and sunk entire ships. Ahab admits he
hates Moby Dick for taking his leg away, and wants revenge. The crew
agree to this challenge, and swear to hunt him down. The only who is
not excited about hunting down Moby Dick is first-mate Starbuck.
For many months, the Pequod sails South, through the Atlantic,
around the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa), and into
the Indian Ocean. Along the way, they kill and drain the spermaceti
oil from e...
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...ums to be educated about them.
After the invention of the electric light bulb, whale oil lamps were
no longer used. Modern cosmetic products contain no spermaceti oil.
Their manufacturers proudly make claims that no animals were harmed
while making the cosmetics.
The real “dumb brutes” in the novel are not the whales, but the
whalers. They are uneducated about the true nature of their prey.
In a sense, Moby Dick was simply exacting revenge for the centuries
of pain and death mankind has inflicted on whales.
In the time of Herman Mellville, man’s dominance over nature was
idealized. Today, we are taught to respect and preserve our
environment. This different frame of reference makes it very
difficult to appreciate the symbolism in this novel. The main focus
of the novel, however, is on obsession and its destructiveness.
One of the most important elements in a great literary work is
universality. The main idea of the novel (destructive obsession) is
universal, even though the symbolism is not. Moby Dick was clearly a
great novel, although it was nothing like what I expected.
Last year, Ta-Nehisis Coates’ Atlantic article “The Case for Reparations” threw a national spotlight on a debate and movement that has been ongoing, yet for the large part unseen, for more than 150 years. Reparations suddenly became a topic of national debate, which like most things today focused on the merits of the idea versus proposing any real solutions to the issues. Coates’ article is no different, offering a litany of offensives without proposing any real solvency to the issues that have oppressed the black community in America for the past several hundred years.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the article “The Case for Reparations” presents a powerful argument for reparations to black African American for a long time of horrendous injustice as slavery plus discrimination, violence, hosing policies, family incomes, hard work, education, and more took a place in black African American’s lives. He argues that paying such a right arrears is not only a matter of justice; however, it is important for American people to express how they treated black African Americans.
Located in the dark, cold pages of Moby Dick lies evil, an evil by the name of mankind. Mankind snarls its teeth into the face of nature and fellow-man by character development and a thick plot. By diving into the characters and the author, the motives of these individuals is shown clearly through the murky water.
Kuklinski’s childhood was dysfunctional. His father was an alcoholic who abused his wife and children (Carlo 2003). Richard dropped out of junior high school and was notorious for killing cats in his Polish neighborhood as a youth. Even Richard’s brother was Joseph was convicted for raping and murdering a 12-year-old girl (Carlo 2003). Amid the alcohol abuse of his father as well as physical and verbal abuse from both his mothe...
Herman Melville's Moby Dick is a book which can be read as a general metaphor for the battle between the evil powers of the Devil versus the divine powers of God and Jesus, both try to obtain the souls of mankind in order to assist in each other's destruction. In this metaphor, the Devil is shown through the person of Captain Ahab, God becomes nature, Jesus is seen as the White Whale, and the representation of mankind is the crew. The voyage of the Pequod, therefore, is a representation of a similar voyage of mankind on earth, until the death of Jesus, during the whole thing the influences of these three “supernatural forces” are connected. Thus, the basis of this idea is that in the plot of Melville's book, there are also peeks of the "plot" of the Bible.
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