Inktober Day 12 prompt- Whale
'Call me Isaamel' is perhaps among the most famous opening lines of any book, perhaps only second to Dickens' Tale of Two Cities introduction 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times........ in the superlative degree of comparison only'.
Ishmael is the narrator of the novel and is a sailor aboard the whaling ship Pequod on his first voyage. The ship's captain Ahab is on a mission to take revenge against Moby Dick, a sperm whale that had ripped of his leg in a prior voyage. This is the premise of one of the most well known novels about the sea, Moby Dick. Although the whale itself appears only in three of the one hundred and thirty five chapters, it is integral to the story.
An interesting observation I made while reading the book was the peculiarity of the names of the crewmates and Harpooners on the Pequod. There was Starbuck, Stub, Flask, Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo and Fedallah. When I did a little bit of research into this, I learnt that coffeehouse chain 'Starbucks' was contemplating on calling itself 'Pequod' before deciding on the name of the ship's first mate.
Coming back to the novel, I thought that symbolism was one of its major themes and I'd like to dive a little bit into the specific symbolism of the whale itself.
Moby Dick is this gigantic and terrifying sperm whale which, as mentioned before, Captain Ahab is on a mission to hunt and kill. It symbolises different things when viewed from the perspective of different characters. For instance, to Ishmael and the crew members, Moby Dick represents the scary reality of the lives of sailors. Setting sail into unknown waters, with a very real possibility of ships sinking, encountering storms or being marooned on an island are dangers that are part and parcel of their lives. Meanwhile, Captain Ahab views Moby Dick as everything that is wrong with the world and therefore takes it upon himself to correct these wrongs. He is consumed by his determination to be avenged, to the extent that it drives him to the brink of madness. Finally, as regards myself, the reader, I thought Moby Dick was merely an instrument; a device that was employed to give us a window into the lives of these characters, their drives and desires, and served the overarching purpose of being the entity to which the characters' defining traits could be associated with or linked to.
While it is a rather tedious read, I would recommend checking this book out.
Ishmael is the narrator of the novel and is a sailor aboard the whaling ship Pequod on his first voyage. The ship's captain Ahab is on a mission to take revenge against Moby Dick, a sperm whale that had ripped of his leg in a prior voyage. This is the premise of one of the most well known novels about the sea, Moby Dick. Although the whale itself appears only in three of the one hundred and thirty five chapters, it is integral to the story.
An interesting observation I made while reading the book was the peculiarity of the names of the crewmates and Harpooners on the Pequod. There was Starbuck, Stub, Flask, Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo and Fedallah. When I did a little bit of research into this, I learnt that coffeehouse chain 'Starbucks' was contemplating on calling itself 'Pequod' before deciding on the name of the ship's first mate.
Coming back to the novel, I thought that symbolism was one of its major themes and I'd like to dive a little bit into the specific symbolism of the whale itself.
Moby Dick is this gigantic and terrifying sperm whale which, as mentioned before, Captain Ahab is on a mission to hunt and kill. It symbolises different things when viewed from the perspective of different characters. For instance, to Ishmael and the crew members, Moby Dick represents the scary reality of the lives of sailors. Setting sail into unknown waters, with a very real possibility of ships sinking, encountering storms or being marooned on an island are dangers that are part and parcel of their lives. Meanwhile, Captain Ahab views Moby Dick as everything that is wrong with the world and therefore takes it upon himself to correct these wrongs. He is consumed by his determination to be avenged, to the extent that it drives him to the brink of madness. Finally, as regards myself, the reader, I thought Moby Dick was merely an instrument; a device that was employed to give us a window into the lives of these characters, their drives and desires, and served the overarching purpose of being the entity to which the characters' defining traits could be associated with or linked to.
While it is a rather tedious read, I would recommend checking this book out.
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