Mouhamadou bah
ENG2200
Professor Noonan
11/19/23
The story Moby dick is about a man named Ishmael a sailor, who decides to go whale seeing aboard a whaling ship. He travels to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he stays in a whalers’ inn. Since the inn is rather full, he has to share a bed with a harpooner from the South Pacific named Queequeg. At first, he is repulsed by Queequeg’s strange habits and shocking appearance (Queequeg is covered with tattoos), Ishmael eventually comes to appreciate the man’s generosity and kind spirit, and the two decide to seek work on a whaling vessel together. They take a ferry to Nantucket, the traditional capital of the whaling industry. There they secure berths on the Pequod, a savage-looking ship adorned with the bones and teeth of sperm whales. Peleg and Bildad, the Pequod’s Quaker owners, drive a hard bargain in terms of salary. They also mention the ship’s mysterious captain, Ahab, who is still recovering from losing his leg in an encounter with a sperm whale on his last voyage.
The vessel leaves the ferry on a cold charismas day, with a crew made up of different men from different races and soon they meet the captain of the ship balancing gingerly on his false leg, which is made from a sperm whale’s jaw. He announces his desire to pursue and kill Moby Dick, the legendary great white whale who took his leg because he sees this whale as the embodiment of evil. later they find a barrel filled with gold and the captain tells the crew that ever one sees the whale first gets to keep it. As the Pequod sails toward the southern tip of Africa, whales are sighted and unsuccessfully hunted. then they meet a new crew and decide to go on this whaling hunt together.
during the climax of the story, they meet different types of ship and crews who are also going on a hunt to kill the whale, and later, the crew save a boy. Pip, the Pequod’s black cabin boy, jumps from a whaleboat and is left behind in the middle of the ocean. He goes insane as a result of the experience and becomes a crazy but prophetic jester for the ship. Soon after, the Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby, a whaling ship whose skipper, Captain Boomer, has lost an arm in an encounter with Moby Dick. The two captains discuss the whale; Boomer, happy simply to have survived his encounter, cannot understand Ahab’s lust for vengeance. Ahab orders a harpoon forged in the expectation that he will soon encounter Moby Dick. He baptizes the harpoon with the blood of the Pequod’s three harpooners. The Pequod kills several more whales. Issuing a prophecy about Ahab’s death, Fedallah declares that Ahab will first see two hearses, the second of which will be made only from American wood, and that he will be killed by hemp rope. Ahab interprets these words to mean that he will not die at sea, where there are no hearses and no hangings.
Ahab finally sights Moby Dick. The harpoon boats are launched, and Moby Dick attacks Ahab’s harpoon boat, destroying it. The next day, Moby Dick is sighted again, and the boats are lowered once more. The whale is harpooned, but Moby Dick again attacks Ahab’s boat. Fedallah, trapped in the harpoon line, is dragged overboard to his death. Starbucks must maneuver the Pequod between Ahab and the angry whale. On the third day, the boats are once again sent after Moby Dick, who once again attacks them. The men can see Fedallah’s corpse lashed to the whale by the harpoon line. Moby Dick rams the Pequod and sinks it. Ahab is then caught in a harpoon line and hurled out of his harpoon boat to his death. All of the remaining whaleboats and men are caught in the vortex created by the sinking Pequod and pulled under to their deaths. Ishmael, who was thrown from a boat at the beginning of the chase, was far enough away to escape the whirlpool, and he alone survived. He floats atop Queequeg’s coffin, which popped back up from the wreck until he is picked up by Rachel, which is still searching for the crewmen lost in her earlier encounter with Moby Dick.
Watching and reading this story made me realize that revenge is not worth it. I think Ahab the ship’s captain should have stopped going after that whale but because of his need for revenge, he got himself and his entire crew killed. if he had decided to live the rest of his life peacefully then maybe this would never have happened.
A significant scene from the 1956 film version of “Moby-Dick,” is the scene where Father Mapple delivers a sermon in the Whaleman’s Chapel. Father Mapple tells the story of Jonah and the whale from the Bible, making a connection to the whalers lives. The introduction of concepts of fate and divine vengeance depends on this scenario. It implies that, like Jonah, those who attempt to run away from their destiny will eventually have to face it head-on. This lecture provides a moral and spiritual framework for the movie, implying that Captain Ahab’s hunt for the white whale is a significant conflict pitting human will against cosmic forces instead of a physical one. This scene in the movie emphasizes how the book explores concepts like fate, free will, and the consequences of defying one’s destiny.