The Pequod sets sail, and the crew is soon informed that this journey will be unlike their other whaling missions: this time, despite the reluctance of Starbuck, Ahab intends to hunt and kill the beastly Moby Dick no matter the cost.Īhab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. This nature of Ahab’s obsession is first revealed to Ishmael and Queequeg after the Pequod’s owners, Peleg and Bildad, explain to them that Ahab is still recovering from an encounter with a large whale that resulted in the loss of his leg. Starbuck, Ahab’s first-mate, recognizes this problem too, and is the only one throughout the novel to voice his disapproval of Ahab’s increasingly obsessive behavior. The ship’s captain is Ahab, who Ishmael and his friend Queequeg soon learn is losing his mind. Amid a story of tribulation, beauty, and madness, the reader is introduced to a number of characters, many of whom have names with religious resonance. Ishmael, who turns to the sea for meaning, relays to the audience the final voyage of the Pequod, a whaling vessel.
Moby Dick famously begins with the narratorial invocation “Call me Ishmael.” The narrator, like his biblical counterpart, is an outcast.
ISHMAEL SPARK NOTEA HOW TO
COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.Still, even though Ishmael thinks his participation in the whaling voyage is predetermined, he acknowledges that he wants to go, in part, to satisfy his genuine curiosity about these enormous, mysterious creatures we call whales.Although Ishmael has explained that going to sea and being a sailor are his decisions, he also says that going whaling instead of sailing on a merchant ship is his fate.The last reason Ishmael chooses to be a sailor is that it involves exercise and fresh air.Ishmael especially likes getting paid instead of paying (who doesn’t?), which is another motivation for being a sailor.In other words, everybody’s got a boss, even if it’s just God. However, Ishmael doesn’t mind being ordered around on board ship, because he knows that "everybody else is in one way or other served in much the same way-either in a physical or metaphysical point of view" (1.9).(We get the idea Ishmael’s been a schoolteacher.) Ishmael says that being a lowly sailor and getting ordered around does take some getting used to, especially if you’ve held a powerful position before-like, say, a schoolteacher.He just wants to be an ordinary sailor.He also doesn’t want to be in an important position, such as captain or cook, because then he’d have responsibilities, and that would really get him down (which, frankly, we can totally sympathize with).Ishmael doesn’t want to go to sea as a passenger, because then he’d have to pay.Ancient cultures in Persia and Greece worshipped the sea.
Niagara Falls is a major tourist destination. In Manhattan, he tells us, people crowd around the wharves, looking out at the sea and trying to get as close to it as possible.Ishmael claims that most people and most cultures around the world have a special attraction to water in general and the sea in particular.Ishmael explains that, whenever he feels depressed and suicidal, he always goes to sea.He begins his story "some years ago," at one particular moment when he decided to go on a sailing voyage.The narrator introduces himself to the reader with one of the most famous first lines in literature: "Call me Ishmael.".(Click the summary infographic to download.)
0 kommentar(er)
