and promoted by literary historians interested in constructing an American literary tradition. To these critics, Moby Dick was both a seminal work elaborating on classic American themes, such as religion, fate, and economic expansion, and a radically experimental anachronism that anticipated Modernism in its outsized scope and pastiche of forms. As a novel that appears bizarre to the point of being unreadable but proves to be infinitely open to interpretation and discovery.
1.3 The Introduction of the Story Moby Dick
“Call me Ishmael”, the narrator begins, in one of the most recognizable opening lines in American literature. This observant young man from Manhattan has been to sea four times in the merchant service but yearns for a whaling adventure. On a cold, gloomy night in December, he arrives at the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and agrees to share a bed with a stranger. Both men are alarmed when the bunkmate, a heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, returns late and discovers Ishmael beneath his covers. But the two soon become good friends and decide to sail together from the historical port of Nantucket.
In Nantucket, they sign on with the Pequod, Queequeg the more attractive employee due to his excellence with the harpoon. Ishmael, lacking any further ambition, will be a common sailor. The ship’s captain, Ahab, is a man of few words but deep meaning. He does not worship or even acknowledge the superiority of forces beyond himself. A raggedy prophet of doom named Elijah catches the two friends on the dock and hints at trouble with Ahab. The mystery grows on Christmas morning when Ishmael spots dark figures in the mist, apparently boarding the Pequod shortly before it sets sail. The ship’s officers direct the early voyage. The chief mate, Starbuck, is a sincere Quaker and fine leader. Second mate is Stubb, a prankster but an anble seaman. Third mate is Flask, dull but competent. When Ahab finally appears on his quarter deck one morning, he is an imposing, frightening figure whose haunted visage sends shivers over the narrator. Ahab finally gathers the crewmen together and, in a rousing speech, solicits their support in a single purpose for this voyage: hunting down and killing the white whale – Moby Dick, a very large sperm whale with a snow-white head. Only Starbuck resists the charismatic, monomaniacal captain: the first mate argues repeatedly that the ship’s purpose should be to gather whale oil and return home safely. Eventually, even Starbuck acquiesces.
The mystery of the dark figures is explained during the voyage’s first chase, long before meeting Moby Dick. Ahab has secretly brought along his own boat crew, led by an ancient Asian named Fedallah, an inscrutable figure with an odd influence over Ahab. Later, white guarding a captured whale one night, Fedallah tells Ahab of a prophecy of his death. Queequeg becomes deathly ill and orders a canoe-shaped coffin from the ship’s carpenter. Just as everyone has given up hope, the island aborigine decides to live and soon recovers. The coffin serves as his sea chest and later is caulked and pitched to become the ship’s life buoy. Queequeg heroically rescues two drowning men in the novel, his coffin will save a third.
Ahab is the first to spot Moby Dick. For three days, the crew pursues the great whale, which repeatedly turns on the Pequod’s boats, wreaking destruction and killing Fedallah, sinking the Pequod, and dragging Ahab into the sea and his death. Only Ishmae
