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Ahab's Revenge
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Aye, captain
In various pages of the book, the word "aye" and "ye" were used. These words identiy the literary device, anagram. The definition of this device is the writer jumbles parts of words to make a new one. -
New Bedford and Natucket
In New Bedford, there was the Spouter-Inn, which was a hotel filled with seamen with meals of chowder for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here was the whalemen's chapel which Ishamel attended to one day reading the engravements of whalemen that passed away. Up ahead of New Beford stood Nantucket, found in Canada. Here is where a docking bay is located containing three ships that head for the ocean to go whaling. -
Perspective
"Why did Britain between ther years 1750 and 1788 pay her whalemen in bounties upwards of $1,000,000?' Here Ishmael compares important people and antions to whale-men in pages 122-127. This shows that Ishmael ahd self-confidence and everyone has a different perspective. -
Friendship
In the story, two men make an interesting friendship, Ishmael and Queequeg. They were both very different, Queequeg was a cannibal, and Ishmael was a worker in merchant ships. They met in Spouter-Inn. This showed me that two very different people can make a very nice friendship. -
Exposition
Ishmael, a young man, embarks on a fierce journey to go whaling. His first stop is in the Spouter-Inn, where he meets his soon friend, Queequeg, a harpooner. Ishmael describes the tattoos on Queequeg, he was "covered" with "checkered squares as his face." (page 38). Together, they decide on embarking their journey in one of three ships, the Devil-Dam, the Tit-bit, and the Pequod. They chose the Pequod with the approval of Captain Bildad and Captain Peleg. -
Revenge is never good
Captain Ahab cried, "Death to Moby Dick!" ( page 182). Ahab was persistent to finish off the enemy who bit his leg off. He wanted revenge and nothing else. He still did not get his revenge, but instead died for trying to do so. This shows that revenge always brings conseqences. -
Timber legs can be very useful
Stubb cried,"if I had but one leg you would not catch me in a boat, unless maybe to stop the plug-hole with my timber toe"(page 245). Here sailor Stubb makes a joke about how he would use a wooden leg if he had one. This joke identifies literary device pun. This means that a word can be used in a way that suggests two meanings to create a humorous joke. -
Ain't that a kick in the butt
"In old England the greatest lords think it great glory to be slapped by a queen . . . ye were kicked by old Ahab, and made a wise man of." (page 145). Here a sailor named Stubb explains his glorious occasion of being kicked in the butt by Captain Ahab. This identifies the literary device analogy. This means a relationship from two similarities. -
Rising Action
On the Pequod, Ishmael was curious where the captain of the ship was. Captain Peleg told him before they set sail the story of Ahab, "I know . . . he lost his leg last voyage by that accursed whale." (page 97). With this in mind, the sailors, along with Ishmael and Queequeg, began their mission of looking for specific class of whales. It was christmas, and captain Ahab was still not in sight. -
The gold dabloon
"Look ye! d'ye see this spanish ounce of gold?" "it is a sixteen dollar piece men. D'ye see it?". Here Ahab descriptively explains the gold coin he held in his hand. The explanation he gave for this lustrous gold coin indentified the presence of amplification. This means a writer embellishes one of his sentences by adding more information to it. -
Climax
Captain Ahab finally showed himself, and "stood upon his quarter-deck". (page 137). Ishmael then desrcibes his figure, "He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overruningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them." "His whole high, broad form, seemed made of solid bronze." Since Ahab wanted revenge on the whale that gave him a wooden leg, and gave his men a deal. Whoever spotted Moby Dick first gets a golden coin, worth 16 dollars. -
Falling Action
The search for Moby Dick begins. One of the sailors spots a herd of whales, and believes Moby Dick is in it. "Spread yourselves" cried Ahab (page 234), since the harpooners were in the boats sailing for the herd. At the end though, Moby Dick was not in the group of whales seen. -
The deep sea and the Pequod
The Pequod contained stowaways, sailors, harpooners, and captains. It had a bunk room and kitchen and dining rooms. The ship contained four boats which were used to go sail for catching whales on the open sea. They confronted whales, but weren't fast enough to surround them, and found a squid that few whalemen see and reoprt them back on land. -
The terrible sea monster
"A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length . . .cream color". "Innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas" (page 294). This information identified the literary device, imagery. This means an author uses words and description to be able to make a mental image to the reader. -
Conclusion
The search for the dangerous whale continues. Ishmael describes the moment when a giant squid pops out of the water, which made the color of the water white. This made the sailors believe again it was Moby Dick, even a sailor shockingly said, "Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!". (page 295). The squid they saw though was so rarely seen that the sailors also added, "The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld"(p295).
