Moby Dick

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About the authorHerman Melville (1819–1891) was born in New York. His father became bankrupt and went insane, dying when Melville was twelve years old. Melville worked as a clerk, teacher, and farmhand before going to sea in search of adventure when he was twenty. After working as a cabin boy on a whaling ship, he joined the United States Navy. During this time he had many adventures, including living briefly among the Typee cannibals in the Marquesas Islands. When he was twenty-five, he returned to his mother’s house in the United States and began to write books based on his adventures. His first two books, Typee (1845) and Omoo (1847) were very successful. Moby Dick, was published in 1850. It received mixed reviews at the time it was published, and it did not sell as well as his first two books. Melville’s later years were often difficult and unhappy. His writing reflected increasing despair and contempt for human hypocrisy. His last finished novel, The Confidence Man (1857), was a harsh satire of American life. After this he wrote only poetry and worked as a customs inspector on New York docks. However, when he died in 1891, an unfinished novel, Billy Budd, was found in his desk. When it was finally published in 1924, it was hailed by critics as a great novel. But it is for his masterpiece, Moby Dick, that Melville is mainly remembered today.

Summary

Chapters 1–3Ishmael (the narrator) wants to work on a whaling ship. He arrives in Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, where he meets Queequeg, the son of a Maori chief in Kokovoko who also wants to work on a whaling ship. The two become good friends, and sign up to work on the Pequod, a whaling ship with a one-legged

captain called Ahab. After three weeks at sea, Captain Ahab tells the crew that he wants to kill Moby Dick, the white whale that bit off his leg. He offers gold to the first man to see the whale. Everyone is happy except for Starbuck, the first mate, who thinks that Captain Ahab’s plan is crazy.

Chapters 4–6Ishmael’s first encounter with a whale isn’t successful, but he sees Captain Ahab’s men are only interested in Moby Dick. The Pequod catches and kills many whales, but Captain Ahab cannot forget Moby Dick. Even when the Pequod meets other ships like the Albatross and the Samuel Enderby, he only asks about Moby Dick. Captain Ahab is determined to kill Moby Dick. One night, Fedallah, one of the Captain Ahab’s men who can tell the future, sees Moby Dick. Captain Ahab is happy, and he orders the crew to follow the whale, but they lose it.

Chapters 7–8Pip, a young cook boy, goes crazy after a whaling trip. Now he worships Captain Ahab as God. One day, there’s a problem with some of the barrels and they’re losing oil. Starbuck accuses Captain Ahab of being obsessed with Moby Dick. He is afraid that the men on the ship may not go back to their families. After fixing the barrels, Queequeg gets sick and he thinks he is going to die. He asks the other men to make him a coffin. Ishmael and the other men are very sad, but later on, Queequeg somehow realizes that he cannot die now. They put his coffin away with the barrels.

Chapters 9–10Captain Ahab tells Fedallah about a bad dream he had and Fedallah tells him that when he dies, he will not have a coffin and will be killed by a rope. He also tells Captain Ahab that he, Fedallah, will die first. Captain Ahab gets more desperate to catch the whale. He throws away the ship’s maps and threatens to kill anyone who tries to turn the ship around. Starbuck has the chance to kill Captain Ahab, but loses his nerve. Captain Ahab refuses to help the captain of another ship, the Rachel, look for his missing son because he learns that Moby Dick is nearby.

Chapters 11–13The whale is sighted, and Captain Ahab leads his crew out in small boats to fight the whale with harpoons, leaving Starbuck to look after the Pequod. The fight with Moby Dick lasts for three days. On the first day, Captain Ahab hits the whale with his harpoon but his boat capsizes. On the second day, Captain Ahab’s boat is capsized again,

Herman Melville

Moby Dick

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he loses his whalebone leg and Fedallah is killed. On the third day, Captain Ahab sees Fedallah’s body tangled up in ropes on Moby Dick. Captain Ahab hits the whale with a harpoon. Moby Dick hits the Pequod, which starts to sink. In a seemingly suicidal act, Captain Ahab throws another harpoon at Moby Dick but gets tangled up in the rope and goes down with the whale. The ship sinks, and only Ishmael survives. He is rescued from the sea by the Rachel, whose captain is still looking for his missing son.

Background and themes

Moby Dick is seen as an American classic – most American students study it in school. Melville’s own experience as a whaler was the most important inspiration for the novel.

Man vs Nature: Moby Dick is, in many ways, a traditional adventure story about American pioneers but with a different background: instead of the American West, there is the sea, and instead of the search for gold, there is the hunt for Moby Dick. The central conflict in the book is between man and nature, but the battle between Ahab and the whale is open to many interpretations. For example, in John Huston’s 1956 film with Gregory Peck as Ahab, he questions which one, Ahab or the whale, is the real monster.

Superstition and Myth: A stranger in Nantucket warns Ishmael and Queequeg against traveling with Ahab. Fedallah predicts his own death and that of Ahab. A large black bird takes Ahab’s hat just before the final battle with Moby Dick. There are many signs and omens that predict a tragic end. The purpose of these is to create a sense of inevitability.

Contrast between civilizations: Ahab, a ‘civilized’ sea captain, has primitive delusions of grandeur. He bases his life on superstition and dreams. He is only kind to Pip, the crazy cabin boy, because Pip worships him as a god. He shows no respect or consideration for others. He is prepared to sacrifice everybody’s life in the pursuit of his own obsession. Queequeg, in contrast, is a tattooed Maori. He, too, has superstitions and is superficially primitive, but he is the most human, civilized person on the ship.

Discussion activities

Chapters 1–3Before reading1 Discuss: Talk about the front cover. Ask students to

look at the Word List in the book and the picture on

the front cover. Ask them to see if they can find a picture of the new words. Ask some students to come to the board and write down the new words they found in the picture. Then have students write some sentences with the new words, describing the front cover.

After reading2 Role play: Put students into pairs. Ask them to have

this conversation. Student A: You are Queequeg. You want to leave

home and work on a whaling ship. Tell your father why.

Student B: You are Queequeg’s father. You want your son to stay at home. Tell him why.

3 Discuss: Put students into small group and have them discuss the following questions:

Will Ishmael and Queequeg be happy on the Pequod? Why/why not? Who is right about whaling, Captain Ahab or Starbuck? Why? Who is right about the sound of men, Pip or Ishmael? What do you think?

Chapters 4–6Before reading4 Discuss: Talk about gold. Have a whole class discussion using the following

questions: Do you think Ishmael is going to get the gold? Who do

you think is going to get the gold? Is Captain Ahab right to show the gold to the whalers? What do you think of Captain Ahab?

After reading5 Discuss: Put students into groups to discuss the

following questions. Later, ask each group to share their opinions with the rest of the class.

Why are these things important to whalers: sharks, oil, barrels, harpoons, maps, and the weather? Some say that Fedallah can see the future. Is it possible to see the future, do you think? Would you like to know your future? Why/why not? Why is Captain Ahab angry with Captain Boomer? Who is right? Why?

Chapters 7–8Before reading6 Discuss: Talk about the picture. Put students into

small groups. Have them look at the picture on page 19 and discuss the following questions:

What’s happening? You are the person in the ocean. How do you feel? You are the person in the ocean. What do you say? What do you think will happen next?

Later, ask each group to share their opinions with the rest of the class.

After reading7 Role play: Put students into pairs. Ask them to have

this conversation. Student A: You are Starbuck. You want Ishmael to go

out in a small whaling boat with Fedallah. Tell him why.

Moby Dick

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Student B: You are Ishmael. You want to go out in the boat with Queequeg, not Fedallah. Tell Starbuck why.

8 Discuss: Put students into groups to discuss these questions.

Why is Starbuck angry with Pip? Is he right? Why/why not? Who is the most important man on the ship – Ishmael, Starbuck or Queequeg? Why?

Chapters 9–10Before reading9 Discuss: Talk about the chapter title. Start a discussion by asking students as follows:

The title of Chapter 9 is “Captain Ahab’s dream.” What do you think his dream is like? Is it a good dream or bad dream? What do you think happens in this chapter? Have students work in pairs or small groups to discuss, and then ask some students to report to the class later.

After reading10 Role play: Put students into groups of three. They

are whalers on the Pequod. Ask them to have this conversation.

Student A: You think Ahab is a bad captain. You want to kill him. Say why.

Student B: You don’t like Captain Ahab, but you think that it is wrong to kill him. Say why.

Student C: You think that Ahab is a good captain. You want him to stay. Say why.

11 Discuss: Put students into small groups. Ask them to think about the feelings of the following characters. Encourage them to give reasons why.

• Captain Ahab, after his conversation with Fedallah. • Starbuck,inthebadweather. • CaptainAhab,inthebadweather. • Starbuck,afterheleavesCaptainAhab’sroom. • CaptainGardiner,whenheleavesCaptainAhab. • CaptainAhabandFedallah,whentheywatchthe

ocean. • CaptainAhab,whenthebirdtakeshishat. • Thewhalers,whenthebirdtakesCaptainAhab’shat.

Chapters 11–13Before reading12 Discuss: Talk about the ending. Start a whole-class

discussion by asking students to guess if they think the story has a happy or sad ending. Encourage them to give reasons why.

After reading13 Discuss: Put students into small groups. Ask them to

think how important the following things are in this section of the story: birds, Captain Ahab’s whalebone leg,ropes,acoffin,CaptainGardiner’sson.

14 Pair work: Have students work in pairs. Ask them who they feel or don’t feel sorry for. Have them think why they feel that way.

Extra activities15 Discuss: Put students into small groups to discuss the

following questions: Many things happen in this story to warn people about

the future. What are they? What lessons can we learn from this story?

16 Discuss: Have students work in pairs to discuss the following questions:

Do these words describe a good or a bad captain of a ship: afraid, evil, friendly, kind, old, strong, and wild? Why do you think so? Someone pays you $100,000 to work for a year on a whaling ship. Do you want the job? Why/why not? How was killing whales more dangerous 100 years ago than today?

17 Describe: Write the names of characters on the board: Ishmael, Queequeg, Elijah, Captain Ahab, Starbuck, Stubb, Fedallah, Pip, etc. Put students into small groups and assign a character to each group. Ask them to describe the character and what he did or what happened to him. When they are ready, ask each group to report to the class.

18 Class survey: Ask students to walk around the classroom to ask each other the following question: Who is your favorite character? Encourage them to give reasons. Students can keep a tally, and later on, ask them to discover the top three. Ask some students to report some reasons they heard.

19 Retell: Write the titles of the chapters on pieces of paper and stick them on the board in jumbled order. Ask students to arrange the chapter titles in the correct order. Then put students into small groups. In each group, each student should take turns to retell the story chapter by chapter. Students can use the pictures on pages 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 25 and 31 to help them retell the story.

20 Research and discuss: Have students work in groups to collect some information on whaling. You could give each group a topic, e.g. history of whaling, why people kill whales, which countries are whaling at the present day, who is against whaling and why they are against it, what the pros and cons are, etc. Encourage students to gather information using books, the Internet and newspaper/magazine articles. When they are ready, ask each group to report to the class. Then have a whole-class discussion by asking Is whaling a good thing or bad thing? Why do you think so?