Moby Dick Book Report

Call me Ishmael, Moby-Dick begins, in one of the most recognizable opening lines in English-language literature. The narrator, an observant young man setting stunned from Manhattan, has experience in the merchant marine but has recently unflinching his next sweep w diabetic be on a whaling send out. On a cold, gloomy night in December, he arrives at the Sp erupter-Inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and agrees to share a bed with a then-absent stranger.When his bunk mate, a heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, returns very late and discovers Ishmael on a lower floor his covers, both men are alarmed, but the dickens quickly pay back close friends and decide to brush together from Nantucket, Massachusetts on a whaling voyage. In Nantucket, the pair signs on with the Pequod, a whaling ship that is soon to transmit port. The ships captain, Ahab, is nowhere to be seen nevertheless, they are told of him a grand, ungodly, godly man, according to one of the owners , who has been in colleges as well as mong the cannibals. The 2 friends encounter a mysterious man named Elijah on the dock afterwards(prenominal) they sign their papers and he hints at troubles to come with Ahab. The mystery grows on Christmas morning when Ishmael spots dark looks in the mist, apparently embarkment the Pequod myopicly before it sets sail that day. The ships officers direct the former(a) voyage while Ahab stays in his cabin. The chief mate is Starbuck, a serious, sincere Quaker and fine leader second mate is Stubb, slaphappy and cheerful and always smoking his pipe the third base mate is Fl occupy, short and st out but thoroughly reliable.Each mate is responsible for a whaling boat, and each whaling boat of the Pequodhas its own pagan harpooneer assigned to it. few time after sailing, Ahab finally appears on the quarter-deck one morning, an imposing, frightening figure whose haunted visage sends shivers over the narrator. (A white scar, reportedly from a thu nderbolt, runs polish up his face and it is hinted that it continues the length of his body. ) One of his legs is missing from the knee down and has been replaced by a prosthesis fashioned from a sperm whales jawbone.Soon multitude the crewmen together, with a rousing speech Ahab secures their support for his single, secret purpose for this voyage laming down and killing Moby Dick, an old, very large sperm whale, with a snow-white hump and mottled skin, that crippled Ahab on his last whaling voyage. besides Starbuck shows any sign of resistance to the charismatic but monomaniacal captain. The starting time mate argues repeatedly that the ships purpose should be to hunt whales for their oil, with luck returning home profitably, safely, and quickly, but not to seek out and kill Moby Dick in particular and especially not for revenge. finally even Starbuck acquiesces to Ahabs will, though harboring misgivings. The mystery of the dark figures seen before the Pequod set sail is expl ained during the voyages first lowering for whales. Ahab has secretly brought along his own boat crew, including a mysterious harpooneer named Fedallah, an inscrutable figure with a sinister forge over Ahab. Later, while watching one night over a captured whale carcass, Fedallah darkly prophecies to Ahab hints regarding their twin deaths.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. billet 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 some(prenominal) 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 ships carpenter.Just as everyone has given up hope, Queequeg changes his mind, decidin g to live after all, and recovers quickly. His coffin becomes his sea chest, and is later caulked and pitched to replace the Pequods disembodied spirit buoy. Soon word is heard from other whalers of Moby Dick. The jolly Captain baby boomer of the Samuel Enderby has lost an arm to the whale, and is stunned at Ahabs burning need for revenge. adjoining they meet the Rachel, which has seen Moby Dick very recently. As a result of the encounter, one of its boats is missing the captains youngest son had been aboard.The Rachels captain begs Ahab to aid in the search for the missing boat, but Ahab is resolute. The Pequods captain is very contiguous the White Whale now and will not stop to help. at long last 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 Pequods crew pursues the whale, which wreaks widespread destruction, including the disappearance of Fedallah.On the third day, Moby Dick rises up to reveal Fedallah tied to him by harpoon ropes, understandably 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 lifelessly 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 Ahabs 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 virtually all the crew to their de aths. Only Ishmael survives, clinging to Queequegs coffin-turned-life buoy for an consummate day and night before the Rachel rescues him.