The Surprising Moby Dick
Moby Dick was not the novel I expected. I was under the impression
that it would be about seafaring and the whale Moby Dick. Instead, Moby
Dick is a story about Captain Ahab's obsession. There is very little in
the story about the revenge itself, just about Ahab's monomania. Out of
465 pages, only forty-two of them deal with the actual battle between Ahab
and Moby Dick.
The novel places very little emphasis on actual seafaring.
Ishmael never even steps on a boat until page seventy-four. Even when the
ship finally leaves port, the mention of anything involving sailing or the
life of sailors is kept to an absolute minimum.
There is, however, plenty of emphasis is on whaling, the anatomy of
whales, and their behavior. The book goes into great detail describing the
whalers of Nantucket, and gives in-depth explanations of the different
types of whales, quoting......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 1275
Approximate Pages: 5 (260 words per double-spaced page) |