He thinks that anything that is worthwhile is dangerous.He is reminded of how dangerous whaling is.Like all the guys who are about to go to sea, Ishmael goes to the whalemen’s chapel.Queequog isn’t as strange looking as Ishmael first thought.While walking around New Bedford, Ishmael says how different the town is with all the weirdos who live there.The other guys don’t say anything about that.Queequog is not shy and uses his big harpoon to grab a steak from the middle of the table.At breakfast, Ishmael sees the big whaling dudes act all shy at the table.When Ishmael sees Coffin in the morning, the manager is pretty amused at his joke of making Ishmael share a bed with the wild Queequeg.This makes Ishmael think of when his lousy stepmom sent him to bed as a kid and in his dream (or was it reality) he was trapped in bed. In his sleep, Queequeg has his arm around Ishmael, and Ishmael can’t move.In the morning, Ishmael sees Queequeg’s groovy tattoos.After a "who the heck are you?" scene in bed, they go to sleep.When the harpooner light a candle, Ishmael sees the human head.When Ishmael is falling asleep, the giant harpooner comes in the room.The manager tells Ishmael that the harpooner is out trying to sell a human head he got on his last trip.First, Ishmael doesn’t want to sleep with the harpooner, but then he does.Peter Coffin, the manager, tells him that there’s no room, but that he can share a room with a harpooner, Queequeg.Inside, there’s a panting of a sinking ship and a huge whale.He needs to find a place to sleep, but a lot of the places are expensive.Ishmael goes to New Bedford (a town in New England).He goes to sea because of its purity and curiosity.Since everyone is a slave to something or someone, Ishmael doesn’t care if people order him around.
When Ishmael is bummed, he finds comfort in the ocean.He is rescued by another boat, the Rachel. Ishmael is the only one who gets out alive. Ahab tries again but his own harpoon rope kills him and the Pequod sinks. The other boats, in trouble, go back to the main ship.
The crew tries to harpoon Moby, but the whale smashes the boats and gets away. He ignores other boats that need his help and just moves on in his search.įinally, Ahab sees the big whale. Ahab grows more and more focused and nutty about finding the whale. In a big storm, the Pequod suffers some damage. They run into other whaling ships and men who have seen the whale. All over the world, Ahab and his crew go looking for Moby. Moby Dick is an evil huge whale that acts up when he’s attacked. Ishmael describes all the different sorts of whales.Īhab tells the crew that the whole reason they are there is to find this one whale, the Great White Whale (Moby Dick) and kill it. When Ishmael sees Ahab fir the first time, he gets creeped out. Ishmael and Queequeg meet the others on board. He stays in his cabin because of some random sickness. They go on a whaling ship together called the Pequod. Ishmael, who narrates this story, becomes friends with Queequeg, a big dude who kills whales. He’s one of the boat guys.įedallah:The guy who becomes Ahab’s personal harpooning dude.Įlijah:Weird dude who sees bad stuff happening to the boat. Starbuck: Armed with many cups of coffee (no, not really). He is obsessed with finding and killing Moby. Yeah, this is the one that starts, "Call me Ishmael."Ĭaptain Ahab:The Captain of the boat (the Pequod). Little did the critics back then know how famous the novel and its first line would become. Melville was good at that kind of writing, even though, when this first was published, the book was pretty much harshed on by everyone. See, it’s about this guy who wants to find this whale, but it’s also about what the search represents. Sure, it’s long, but – whoa – what a tale of adventure, philosophy, and big-time questioning of major human emotions and experiences. Written in 1851, Moby Dick is a classic of American literature.