Examples Of Literary Devices In Moby Dick

Throughout the first chapter of Moby-Dick, a theme of inevitability is brought up time and time again. In a contest of free will and fate, it seems that fate has – and always will – win; this lack of control, though interestingly not viewed by Ishmael as distressing, sets the stage for future events.

However, captain Ahab turns a deaf ear to the reasoning and pleas of the people around him of whom try to get him to stop his relentless pursuit for Moby Dick. Even his own crew sees no reason to chase the whale as Starbuck states "Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous." (Melville 157), he stresses how their aimless journey is pointless and sinful because they are chasing an animal, all the malevolent actions was out of instinct, not malintentions, however, these pleas are cried in vain as Ahab is chasing the whale out of his own selfishness. Starbuck also tries to reason with Ahab saying, “How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab?” it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."(Melville 157), their journey is fruitless and Starbuck attempts to convince Ahab that it is better for them as a whaling ship to hunt for whales that come their way instead of investing all their time and effort into hunting one whale. Although it is reasonable, Ahab also does not listen to the logical reasoning, his mission to restore his pride makes him blind to logic and deaf to reason. When discussing their encounters with Moby Dick, another

Published in 1851, the story of Moby-Dick is not just the tale of one mans search for control over nature, but also the story of friendship, alienation, fate and religion that become intertwined amidst the tragedy that occurs upon the doomed Pequod. The crew itself are an amalgamation of cultures, from the cannibal Queequeg, to Starbuck, "a native of Nantucket." The Pequod can thus be seen as a microcosm for immigrants and whaling within America. In Moby-Dick Herman Melville examines both the exploitation of whaling and the reality of being born outside of America.

In the passage Moby Dick by Herman Melville, uses multiple strategies to create an effect on the reader. Melville uses diction, imagery, details, language, sentence structure, and tone and to make his effect on the reader much more engaging and interesting.

Throughout his novel, Moby Dick, Herman Melville will often devote entire chapters to the thoughts and actions of specific characters. Two specific examples of this type of chapter are Chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, and Chapter 42, The Whiteness of the Whale. The first of these chapters depicts Ahab addressing his crew for the first time in order to convince them to hunt down Moby Dick. The second offers insight to the fear that is brought upon by the mere mention of Moby Dick The significance and effectiveness of each of these chapters are enhanced by Melville’s use of rhetoric and style respectively.

The first passage is the opening paragraph to Herman Melville Moby Dick. The novel opens the narrator speaking, “Call me Ishmael” (Melville 3). This line is significant for many reasons. One is that the narrator does not state that is his name, but just what he prefers to go by. Another reason is that Ishmael is a biblical name, it comes from the son of Abraham. However, Ishmael is overlooked in the bible and Abraham’s son Isaac becomes this heir of his family. Thus, making Ishmael an outcast and a loner. This directly reflects what Ishmael is like in Moby Dick. Ishmael begins to tell his tale, a few years ago he decided to go out and explore the ocean. Ishmael talks about how he was depressed living on land. He says, “…I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul” (Melville 3). November is often symbolic of death because it is a time between fall and winter when everything is dying. Ishmael explained how he was feeling morose and gloomy all the time. He even states, “especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street” (Melville 3). This implies that Ishmael is suicidal and often thinks about giving up. During this time, in the 1850s, traveling out to sea was a dangerous task. Lots of men who traveled out to sea never return. It is considered suicidal to go out and hunt whales. This is exactly why Ishmael

Initially, Melville creates a metaphor to illustrate one of Ahab’s most prominent physical features: the scar along his face and neck. In Ishmael’s chapter describing his first impression of Ahab, he writes: “Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck…you saw a slender rod-like mark….It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom…leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded” (108-109). Ishmael compares Ahab’s long, ropy scar to the mark left on a tree by a lightning strike, giving the reader a vivid image of the intensity of the mark on Ahab’s face. In contrast, a later simile is constructed to describe Ahab’s demeanor as opposed to his physical appearance. Ishmael likens Ahab’s presence to that of a regal sea-lion: “Over his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute, maned sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by his war-like but deferential cubs” (128). The idea of Ahab as such a domineering character reinforces his ultimate dictatorial power on the Pequod. He rules the ship exactly as if he was a lion and the crew members were his physically strong but deferential cubs. Finally, Melville crafts a simile to convey Ahab’s passion for hunting the white whale: “‘…it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye,’ he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose” (139). Melville expresses Ahab’s desire to find and kill Moby Dick by depicting how passionately Ahab displays his wishes to his crew. By comparing Ahab’s sob to that of a grieving moose, Melville

This excerpt confirms the idea that Ahab has spent his life obsessing over killing whales particularly Moby Dick. He admits that he has become a “demon” in his yearning for vengeance of his lost limb.

As if this whale has some sort of overruling power that they are actually unaware of and that have only heard from stories. However Ahab interprets this whale to be nothing less than evil based off of his leg being scavenged by Moby Dick previously, so his mission is solely for revenge.

Ishmael, as the narrator, compares Ahab to a bear who is “burying himself in the hollow of a tree” (146). Bears are known to be vicious, yet Melville chooses to compare Ahab to the calmer side of a hibernating bear, despite Ahab also being described as “moody” and “savage” (83). In “The Quarter-Deck,” Melville compares something shouted by Ahab to an “animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose” (156). Although it is not vicious like a bear, a moose, like Ahab, has powerful qualities. Yet Melville uses “heart-stricken” to portray Ahab displaying a sign of overwhelming sadness and dismay. When Melville, through Ishmael’s narration, compares Ahab to animals, it employs that Ahab has a weaker side as well as a strong and powerful side. However, the contrast in the way Melville portrays Ahab through his descriptions of the captain is not the only form on contradiction Melville

Tattered Remains of a Pasteboard Mask: Ishmael’s Attention to Codes and Humanity in Moby-Dick The ending of Moby-Dick leaves readers with an overwhelming sense of ambiguity. Yes, Ishmael is rescued, but at what cost? Ishmael flounders, both emotionally and physically, desperately grasping onto a coffin-turned-life-buoy while all he has come to know – friendship and community – dragged down to the depths by the culmination of incarnate evil.

Moby Dick has finally come into sight and captain Ahab is determined that they will catch the whale this time. After three days of chasing the whale down, the whale is not caught. Moby Dick ends up drowning the captain when struck with the harpoon. The whale then goes on a rampage and destroys the Pequod. Ishmael is the only one that was upon the Pequod to survive the wreckage that Moby Dick has caused.

His most famous book, Moby Dick, features the observant narrator, Ishmael, aboard the Pequot, a ship captained by the menacing one-legged Captain Ahab. Having lost his limb in a previous voyage to an enormous sperm whale named Moby Dick, Ahab scans the seven seas in manic search of revenge against the giant. Queequeg, Ishmael’s menacing best friend, and the rest of the crew are subjected to extreme jeopardy and later death due to Ahab’s monomaniacal disregard for bad omens and danger. The whale slices the boat clean in half and none survive to tells of its greatness except Ishmael.

While Ahab was still the obedient captain he once was, he was one of the most successful and higher rewarding captains. Unexpectedly, in the midst of a whaling, Ahab and his crew encountered the whale he now refers to as “Moby Dick” or “the white whale.” The crew initiated in capturing the whale, but this whale was different. Rather than capturing the whale, the whale captured Ahab and though Ahab escaped, he did not escape entirely. Moby Dick had dismembered and consumed half of one of Ahab’s legs. Ever since this incident, Ahab’s one and only desire or, as stated in the text, “...his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought” has been to kill Moby Dick; which soon turns him obsessive (Melville). Ahab would not let anyone or anything stop him from achieving his goal, “...’I’ll chase him ‘round Good Hope, and ‘round the Horn, and ‘round the Norway Maelstrom, and ‘round

Similar to Ahab, the Samuel Enderbys’ captain has donated a limb to Moby-Dick, but unlike the Pequod’s leader, the Englishman wants to keep away from the White Whale, arguing, “ain’t one limb enough? What should I do without this other arm? … He’s best left alone” (368). The one-armed captain, head of a ship named for a wealthy British merchants, describes his experience to the one-legged monomaniac, who is overly excited, but the Englishman does not approach the experience as a spiritual battle like Ahab. Interrupting the captain, Ahab exclaims his highlights of his effect on the whale, claiming credit for the harpoons and scars decorating that wild beast. The Samuel Enderby’s captain continues “good-humoredly” (365). The Englishman did not know that he had lost his arm to the Moby-Dick for some time after the attack, but when he found out the identity of his opponent, he forfeited two chances to repeat his attempt at capturing oil from the White Whale. To the Englishman’s sage like attitude, Moby-Dick was nothing more than a remarkably profitable catch, while to