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Moby Dick

by Herman Melville Jia Qi Tan Language arts Period 4 08/01/2013

Settings & Tone


Settings
Time : Nineteenth-Century America Place : Nantucket and the New England Coast; the Open Sea and the Pequod Conflict : Character vs. Force of Nature

Tone
Adventurous Ironic Celebratory philosophical dramatic hyperbolic

Point of View
1st person point of view
How do I know:
It started with the line Call me Ishmael. and it was using I, We, Me on the whole book. He described what he saw and experience as well as his own thoughts.

Characters (Main)
Ishmael
The narrator of this story, and a junior member of the crew of the Pequod. He is not the main character of this book, but much of the narrative is taken up by his eloquent, verbose, and extravagant discourse on whales and whaling.

Captain Ahab
The dark sea captain with one cry, Have ye seen the White Whale? He desired to kill the white whale, Moby Dick because he lost his leg to it. He used the mixture of charisma and terror to persuade to crew joining him to kill Moby Dick.

Moby Dick
The great white sperm whale, the enemy of the Captain Ahab, also a dangerous threat to the seamen.

Exposition and Rising Action

It started with the narrate of Ishmael. He went to the

Massachusetts and decided to go on the whaling voyage, travelled to the Nantucket, and found his best friend, Queenqueg, and went on the ship, the Pequod. Captain Ahab told the crew about his quest, revenge on the White Whale, Moby Dick. While they were searching for the Moby Dick, they hunted for the whale, but not the white whale. They met other ships, and the captain of other ships gave captain Ahab advice not to kill the White Whale but he refused to listen.

Climax

Captain Ahab finally sighted the White Whale. The Pequod chased Moby Dick for three days. Captain Ahab tried to kill the Moby Dick but unfortunately, he did not succeed. The whale was angry of captain Ahabs action, so he sunk the ship.

Falling Action

Everyone on the ship died because the Pequod sunk. Luckily, Ishmael was floating on the coffin and was finally rescued by another whaling ship, Rachel. He was the only survivor and he told this tale, Moby Dick.

Quote
Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hells heart I stab at thee; for hates sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear! These words are by captain Ahab, his last words, after Moby Dick sunk the ship. The whole paragraph shows the dramatic situation when the tragedy happens. It shows that the event is inevitable too. He used the words last breath to show he could not fight the whale. Chapter 135 Page 177

Theme
Sea Story
The location of the whole story is on the sea, so it would be a sea story.

Daring
A bunch of men tried to kill the largest whale on earth, for sure it would be so daring.

Reference

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Franklin, Tennessee: Dalmatian Group, 2013. Print.

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