Реферат: Moby Dick 2 Essay Research Paper Moby

Melville?s inclusion of Ishmael?s survival as an epilogue, a suffix

attached to the dramatic destruction of the Pequod, suggests that

Ishmael?s survival is an afterthought to the fate of Ahab and the rest of

his crew. Ishmael?s quiet words at the beginning of the chapter, “Why then

here does any one step forth? ?Because one did survive the wreck,” (723)

indicate a deep humility on Ishmael?s part. The question is then raised of why Ishmael is the sole survivor. It is

clear that Ishmael significantly differs with Ahab concerning their

respective perspectives of the White Whale. Ishmael clearly indicates in

the chapter “The Try Works” how disagreeable he finds the mission and

mentality of those around him: “?the rushing Pequod, freighted with

savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that

blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac

commander?s soul.” (540) Here, Ishmael breaks his usual detached

observancy and boldly divorces himself from Ahab?s mission and those whom

Ahab has recruited to aid him .

Ishmael further distinguishes himself from the rest of the crew by being

the sole non-exploiter of whales in general. Melville makes it clear early

on that Ishmael initially chooses to ship on the Pequod for the

experiential value of whaling. It has been indicated that his outlook on

the whale is the only significantly benign one. Whereas Ishmael is

terrified by the “whiteness of the whale,” Stubb sees economic gain in the

valuable whale oil, subtly hinted at by his overbearing gloating upon his

first kill. In the harpooneers, we see a violent savageness, even in

Queequeg?s otherwise loving nature. To Ahab, the whale is a emblem of pure

evil. Even prudent, rational Starbuck looks on the whale as a dumb animal,

which it is his duty to exploit. The terror that Ishmael perceives is a consequence of his own vague fear

of the whale?s “nothingness.” What Ishmael fears is the mystical,

terrifying manifestation of white in the natural world, coupled with its

subversion of the sense of purity attached to whiteness in the human