Mobeydick

//**Moby-Dick**//, also known as //**The Whale**//,[|[1]] is a novel first published in 1851 by [|American] author [|Herman Melville]. //Moby-Dick// is widely considered to be a [|Great American Novel] and a treasure of world [|literature]. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor [|Ishmael], and his voyage on the [|whaleship] //[|Pequod],// commanded by [|Captain] Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white [|sperm whale]. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to take revenge. In //Moby-Dick//, Melville employs stylized language, [|symbolism], and [|metaphor] to explore numerous complex themes. Through the main character's journey, the concepts of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of gods are all examined as Ishmael speculates upon his personal beliefs and his place in the universe. The narrator's reflections, along with his descriptions of a sailor's life aboard a whaling ship, are woven into the narrative along with [|Shakespearean] [|literary devices] such as [|stage directions], extended [|soliloquies] and [|asides]. The book portrays insecurity that is still seen today when it comes to [|non-human] beings along with the belief that these beings understand and act like [|humans]. The story is based on the actual events around the whaleship //[|Essex]//, which was attacked by a sperm whale while at sea and sank.[|[2]][|[3]][|[4]] //Moby-Dick// has been classified as American [|Romanticism]. It was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18, 1851, in an [|expurgated] three-volume edition titled //**The Whale**//, and weeks later as a single volume, by New York City publisher [|Harper and Brothers] as //**Moby-Dick; or, The Whale**// on November 14, 1851. Although the book initially received mixed reviews, //Moby-Dick// is now considered part of the [|Western canon] Moby Dick The novel describes numerous "gams," social meetings of two ships on the open sea. Crews normally visit each other during a gam, captains on one vessel and chief mates on the other. Mail may be exchanged and the men talk of whale sightings or other news. For Ahab, however, there is but one relevant question to ask of another ship: “Hast seen the White Whale?” After meeting several other whaling ships, which have their own peculiar stories, the //Pequod// enters the Pacific Ocean. Queequeg becomes deathly ill and requests that a coffin be built for him by the ship’s carpenter. Just as everyone has given up hope, Queequeg changes his mind, deciding to live after all, and recovers quickly. His coffin becomes his sea chest, and is later caulked and pitched to replace the //Pequod'//s [|life buoy]. Soon word is heard from other whalers of Moby Dick. The jolly Captain Boomer of the //[|Samuel Enderby]// has lost an arm to the whale, and is stunned at Ahab's burning need for revenge. Next they meet the //Rachel//, which has seen Moby Dick very recently. As a result of the encounter, one of its boats is missing; the captain’s youngest son had been aboard. The //Rachel'//s captain begs Ahab to aid in the search for the missing boat, but Ahab is resolute. The //Pequod//’s captain is very near the White Whale now and will not stop to help. Finally the //Delight// is met, even as its captain buries a sailor who had been killed by Moby Dick. Starbuck begs Ahab one final time to reconsider his thirst for vengeance, but to no avail. The next day, the //Pequod// meets Moby Dick. For two days, the //Pequod'//s crew pursues the whale, which wreaks widespread destruction, including the disappearance of the 'Parsee'. On the third day, Moby Dick rises up to reveal the Parsee tied to him by harpoon ropes, clearly dead. Even after the initial battle on the third day, as Moby Dick swims away from the //Pequod//, Starbuck exhorts Ahab one last time to desist, observing that "Moby-Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!" Ahab ignores this voice of reason and continues with his ill-fated chase. As the three boats sail out to hunt him, Moby Dick damages two of them, forcing them to go back to the ship and leaving only Ahab's vessel intact. Ahab harpoons the whale, but the harpoon-line breaks. Moby Dick then rams the //Pequod// itself, which begins to sink. As Ahab harpoons the whale again, the unfolding harpoon-line catches him around his neck and he is dragged into the depths of the sea by the diving Moby Dick. The boat is caught up in the whirlpool of the sinking ship, which takes almost all the crew to their deaths. Only Ishmael survives, clinging to Queequeg’s coffin-turned-life buoy for an entire day and night before the //Rachel// rescues him.