Please use the comments section to post a discussion question for this Thursday's class.
Your question should raise an issue from this week's reading (anything after chapter 50). It should set out a topic and raise a question that might spark an interesting conversation in class. Don't just pose a broad, open-ended question ("what does the whale symbolize?"), but give a bit of background and context, preferably pointing us toward a specific scene, passage, character, or set of images. Your question should probably be at least a couple of sentences long.
Please post your comment no later than Wednesday at midnight.
In order to post a comment with a name attached, you need to have a google account. If you don't have one, you can post anonymously--but be sure to put your name in your comment.
23 comments:
Katie Bilodeau
In the novel, Melville/the narrator switches the way in which he tells the story (from a narrative form to that of a play). In Chapter 54, he changes the style of his writing again to tell the story of the Town-Ho. Why does he write this portion of the novel as though he is retelling the story to his friends?
Kristen W.
In chapter 72, the marriage-like relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg that had been introduced early in the novel returns: “the monkey rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queegueg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded” (255). Until this point, not much has been said about their relationship during the voyage. Why does Ishmael/Melville introduce such an intense relationship so early and then go so many chapters without much attention. Is it significant that the two men at this point are literally bound together by the monkey rope (bound together by whaling)?
Amanda Palmisciano
In chapter 55, Ishmael discusses how artists sitting at home have never been able to capture what a whale truly looks like, and that only those at sea know. What comment does this make about art and also man's attempt to master nature?
In Chapter 61, Stubb kills a whale. What is the significance of this particular section? Is it meant to be a reflection of Stubbs' attitude towards Captain Ahab?
Elizabeth Kent
Chapter 52 is about the Pequad's brief interaction with the mysterious Albatross vessel. This immediately brings to mind Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This poem is about a loss ship which is saved by the presence of a mystical albatross. However, their good fortune comes to an end when the captain kills the bird. How does this story parallel or contrast with Chapter 52? How are the captains comparable? How do both stories deal with death? What's with the fishes following the Albatross? How do the bird and the boat relate?
Kristen Charlesworth
In Chapter 81, after the Pequod meets the Jungfrau (Virgin) vessel, the two compete to be the first to kill a slow-moving whale. The Pequod succeeds in harpooning the sperm whale first, but when they fasten it to the side of their ship, their ship starts to slant from the whale's weight. Eventually, the whalers let the whale go and it sinks to the bottom. What might this event foreshadow? Does Melville intentionally incite pity in the readers? What is significant in Melville/Ishmael stating that the sperm whale's sinking is a "very curious thing" that fisherman have still not been able to account for?
Many chapters thus far have been narrated in a text-book fashion. For instance, in chapter 60, Ishmael discusses whale-lines. He goes into great detail of its uses, material, position on the boat, elasticity, etc. Do you think that there is any significance to this form of writing? Is Ishmael/Melville trying to prove himself in some way? What is the impact on the reader?
Caitlin O.
In Chapter 58, Melville/the narrator begins the chapter with a discussion of brit, which the whales eat. He then discusses how terrifying the sea is, filled with unknowable creatures and causing horrible tragedies. Melville says that the soul is like the land/an island surrounded by the chaos of the sea. What does this metaphor mean about man and his relation to the world or to God?
Melissa Tepe
Throughout the novel the reader encounters many digressions ranging from the origin of the word whale to an entire chapter devoted literature mentioning whales. In chapter 54, The Town- Ho, Ishmael tells the story of whalers on another ship. What is the significance of this digression? How does it change the reader's opinions about certain characters?
http://bp1.blogger.com/_EBVu9ShWDgA/R8Ra9up54xI/AAAAAAAAANo/tHGfE2wbdrQ/s1600-h/Ahab.jpg
In Chapter 70, Ahab enters into a sort of monologue/soliloquy with a severed whales head that is drawn up and hanging beside the ship. He engages in dramatic and fiery language while desecrating the beast's head with a spade. What is interesting about the passage is that he seems to make the whale into an powerful and mystical creature with his speech while at the same time defiling the creature. What is the significance of this act and what can you draw from it?
Hey, nice picture of Ahab, Ryan!
Here it is in linked form.
http://bp1.blogger.com/_EBVu9ShWDgA/R8Ra9up54xI/AAAAAAAAANo/tHGfE2wbdrQ/s1600-h/Ahab.jpg
If anyone else wants to add moby-dick pictures please feel free!
Sarah Rocco
Chapter 55 begins with great detail as to the many varying attempts by numerous cultures to depict the whale. What do these many different cultural interpretations suggest about the whale's connection to religion? The whale is presented as a mystery whose "living contour" can only be seen by daring whalers. How does this reflect the relationship between the whalers and a higher power?
From Stephanie Russo:
In chapter 51, when there is a whale sighting, the narrator states: "And had you watched Ahab's face that night, you would have thought that in him also two different things were warring. While his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap." In chapter 53 it is stated that "...it would never do, I say, for this straddling captain to be seen steadying himself the slightest particle by catching hold of anything with his hands..." Both of these passages portray two images of Ahab, one of strength and one of weakness. Why do you think Melville gives Ahab this "double identity?"
During Chapter 82, The Honor and Glory of Whaling, Ishmael references several religious figures from several different religions, defining a heritage for whalesmen. What is the religious significance of this chapter if the crew and the ship are microcosms of the world? What is the importance of this chapter proceeding Chapter 83 in which the story of Jonah appears? Pat
Katie Klein
After the death of the whale the Stubb kills in Chapter 61, Melville follows up with two technically descriptive chapters. In Chapter 63, this description is of "The Crotch." The chapter begins: "The crotch alluded to on a previous page deserves independent mention. It is a notched stick of a peculiar form, some two feet in length, which is perpendicularly inserted into the starboard gunwale near the bow, for the purpose of furnishing a rest for the wooden extremity of the harpoon, whose other naked, barbed end slopingly projects from the prow." Does it seem appropriate that this initial description of this instrument can be interpreted as having sexual overtones? Can the deliberate and skillful killing of a whale among men replace a sexual satisfaction in the same way a "marriage" between Ishmael and Queequeg might stand in for a romantic emotional connection?
In chapter 87, the Grand Armada, the "herd" of whales is described in a humanistic fashion: there are mothers and children, "young Leviathan amours in the deep", the "lake" in which the women and children are protected within. After many chapters of textbook descriptions and wonderings about what a whale is, how does this personification of the whale add to or detract from the idea that Melville has already presented?
Ashley Thomas
In Chapter 72, "The Monkey Rope", Ishmael introduces the curious plight of the Harpooneer and the bowman, (who happen to be Ishamel and Queeueg): that during the "cutting in and attending to the whale" the pair must be attached by a rope. Bearing in mind the perilous nature of Queequeg's task and Ishamel's responsibility for Queequeg's safety, what is interesting about this scene when examining the different races and necessary roles on the ship? What is Queequeg's plight symoblic of? What is the narrator suggesting about the situation in regards to humanity, (especially with the line Are you not the precious image of each and all of us men in the whaling world?" And lastly, what is the significance of the fact that only the Pequod is the only ship in which the monkey and the holder are tied together?
Chapter 55: A great deal of attention is focused towards explaining the image of a whale that only whalers ever really get to appreciate. Is Melville making a religious metaphor between religious figures such as priests, rabbis and the whaler?
-Phil Lombardi
Throughout the novel, the reader observes the religious connotations of the whale, Moby Dick. In chapter 59, the men on the ship encounter a ghastly squid that fades Moby Dick's image. In describing the squid, Ishmael states, "Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind...an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life" (Melville 226). Regarding the ghostlike image of the squid, how does the squid contrast Moby Dick's image, especially in a more religious context? How do the images of Moby Dick and the squid represent the various religious beliefs of the characters in the novel (ex. Queequeg, Father Mapple, Ishmael, etc.)?
Ellen Brown
Throughout Moby Dick, there is an ongoing tension between religion/myth/faith and science/fact/religion. For example, Melville counters Mapple's impassioned biblical interpretation of Jonah and the Whale with chapter 83 in which the story is picked apart by scientifically minded skepticism. What is the purpose of this blatant disagreement? Does Melville want us to favor one side over the other? OR maybe is the point that truth lies only in individual perception?
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