NCHS AP English Language

Final questions 1-5 - Nathan Sheptock and Mark Francis

1. Find the meanings of names of the various ships mentioned in the novel.

Pequod- A misspelling of the original name, Pequot, a tribe of Native Americans who lived in and around what is today Mystic, Connecticut. Their fort in that area was attacked and destroyed by a Puritan led by Major John Mason in 1637. This could elude to the eventual destruction of the Peqoud by mob Dick.

Albatross- This name is most commonly meant as one type of large, usually snow-white in color seabird named so , but it can mean in a metaphorical sense some type of wearisome burden, or encumbrance as alluded to in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which a man who, while on a sailing voyage shoots an albatross, a good omen, is forced to wear the bird around his neck as a guard against bad fortune.

Jeroboam- This was the name of the first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel after its split with the Southern Kingdom of Judah. During his reign, he erected two large golden calfs at both ends of his kingdom as symbols of God and instucted all of his people to come to worship at these symbols rather than in the city of Jerusalem and has since been known by many as the king who "made Israel to sin." Once during his worship at one of the shrines he erected, is it said that a prophet came with a message from God against him and, after he attempted to have him arrested, his hand began to become withered, and was only healed after he begged for God's forgiveness.

Samuel Enderby- The primary founder of the whaling and sefaring firm called Samuel Enderby and Sons in the late 1700s, which was still present and operational during the time setting of Moby Dick. It can also refer to the prophet Samuel mentioned in the Book of Samuel in the Bible. In biblical text, he was the last Hebrew judge and one of the first prophets to preach in the land of Israel. He is also noted for his selection and anointing of Israel's first two kings, Saul and David.

Rachel- She is, in biblical text, the second and favorite wife of Jacob who eventually bore him two sons, and died while birthing the second child. The book of Genesis tells that in order to marry her, Jacob agreed with her mother Laban to work 7 years for them, but after completion of these 7 years, Laban tricked him into unkowingly marrying her sister, Leah, instead. Despite this, it says that he agreed to work yet another 7 years in order to marry her. In some Jewish texts, it is also noted that after pleading with God to forgive His people, he agreed and promised to her that He would eventually lead the Jews out of exile back to the promised land.


2. Explain the relationship between Ahab and Pip.

The most notable similarity between Ahab and Pip (after being left overboard) is their obvoius state of mind- madness in the most basic sense, a near total disattachment from the present reality of the voyage and events to come. But their connection, in many aspects, extends much deeper than this most evident mental correspondence. For one, both Ahab and Pip are in fact the two great extremes of the Great Chain of Being, with Ahab at the top, as the highest being, as God, and Pip at the top, as the lowest being. In a sense it can be interpreted that because of their their obvious connection, in contrast with their even greater disparities, they as a pair complete each other, they each fill the sense of "whole" each of the other is apparently asent of. This in turn takes us back to the Great Chain, which has now instead become a ring, with each end inherently connected to each other begining, reafirming the great struggle present within the book as, in the end, returning to the earth from whence it came. In another aspect, Ahab and Pip have without a doubt both had an encounter with the numinous, in a sense, Ahab's being his first struggle with Moby Dick, and Pip's being his short period alone at sea, from which they both have seemed to go mad. But could this be viewed as simply madness, a physical illness of the brain? Ahab seems to see in Pip more than just a distorted mental state, he seems to know that Pip has had an encounter with God Himself, a profoundly holy experince (which he refers to Pip as-holy-when he talks with him on the deck) which his feeble mind simply could not comprehend on a full scale. This leads to Ahab's next view of Pip, now as more than just a simple cabin boy, now as "touching his center," a reflection of himself in a sense. This in turn leads to Ahab's irreational view of himself as "holy," perhaps from his own experince with the numinous (Moby Dick), or perhaps more likely from what he interpreted as purpose for the encounter: God Himself came to him many years ago with the holy mission, which He conveyed to him through the encounter, to seek vengence on and destroy all that is evil in the world (Moby Dick) so that he may bring peace and balance to the universe.


3. What is the purpose of Ahab's long speech to Starbuck(he talks about his past)?

As discussed in class, Mellville intentionaly wrote Moby Dick as a book that could be anaylzed and interpreted many different ways. Ahab's soliloquy is no exception. When the reader reaches Ahab's soliliquy, he has endured a painful 132 pages of Ahab as a heartless lunatic who has long since abandoned any sort of human traits in favor of seeking revenge on, of all things, a whale. The reader is farely secure in the notion that Ahab is a flat character, and probably has even guessed that Ahab's demise will correlate in some way, with his strange obsession. Alas, Mellville, being the ever-savvy author that he is, decides to throw in a twist. He makes Ahab, for the first (not technicaly the 1st, but certainly the most memeorable) time, seem like a human-being. He does this of course with the mention of his wife and family and other personal information. So, from an author's standpoint, its clear that Ahab's speech gives Ahab more depth, makes him more interesting, but wait, it wouldnt be Mellville if there wernt other ways to interpret this. Ahab also has a good reason for making this speech, just as reader has read 132 chapters and wants something interesting, the sailors have sailed a really long ways, and are beginning to have serious doubts about whether or not to just kill Ahab and go home, after all, hes just a heartless soulless shadow controlled by a vicious hatred for some white whale, right? WRONG! Ahab buys himself some extra time (and he knows it) by making the speech, heartfelt or contrived he knows he was able to touch his sailors heartsjust enough to keep looking for Moby Dick just a little bit longer. Finally, it forces the reader to view things, or at least compells the reader towards seeing things in shades of gray, rather than black and white. As discussed in class, it has many similarities to Star Wars, when Vader removes his wicked-cool bad guy helmet to reveal a human face. As Mr. Oliver said, it is this moment that the viewer realizes that the forces which drive Luke and Vader, are the same, which forces the reader to consider that niether Luke nor Vader is bad or good, just the same guys in different circumstances. Ahab's speech, while certainly not revealing that he is similar to Ishmael, or any other sailor, gives both sailers and the readers alike, a refreshing and thought provoking new way to view Ahab.


4. Discuss Queequeg's coffin: its purpose, what it becomes symbolically.

Near the end of the novel, Queequeg contracts what appears to be a lethal ailment, or decides he's suicidal (depends on movie or book), and, in view of whichever situation you choose to like better, the crew decides to make a coffin for him. Of course, as the story goes, Queequeg recovers from either his suicidal thoughts or violent sickness and doesnt need the coffin, and in the end, the coffin saves Ishmael's life. However, it is clear that in fact, Queequeg DOES NOT recover from whatever ailed him. Quequeg actually died, and his spirit transfers from his body, which is never the same even after he seems to have recovered, to the casket. After Quequeg's recovery, he seems seems much more mellowed and complacent in respect to Ahab and even stops worshiping his pagan idol. Queequeg in fact died, he was unable to bear Ahab's insanity, and simply decides to "die" rather than endure Ahab. When Ishmael is saved by Queequeg's coffin, he is ultimately saved by Queequeg, if Queequeg hadnt have become ill, Ishmael would surely have drowned. It is in fact possible that Queequeg was aware of this, and it may have contributed to why he decided to "die" and have his casket made, before he phsycally died.


5. Discuss the difference between 4 major points in the novel and the film.

In almost all translations, be them language to language or text to film, some deatails are lost or minimialized or over-emphasized in order to benifit the final translation, often at the loss of the original integrity. Moby Dick has its fair share of discrepencies btw. the movie and book, but there are four, which are most significant. The such incident which comes to memory regards Pip falling (or jumping) into the ocean. The movie shows Pip being knocked into the ocean, while the book emphasizes that Pip intentionally jumps into the ocean out of fear. This happens twice in the book, only once in the movie. This is most likely to due the director cutting down the movie to fit time constraints. As discussed in class, Moby Dick has so many messages which can be read from it, probably not even Mellville himself could manage to make a intersting movie which reatained all these elements. The second major difference (as mentioned in the above paragraph) is the reason which compelled the crew of the Peqoud to construct a cofin for Queequeg. The movie shows Queequeg as being apathetic to the point of wanting to die, while the book explains that Queequeg becomes ly ill and requests a coffin. This difference in the movie was probably allowed because the director found it necessary to emphasize Queequeg's extent of belief in magic and omens. The third difference is unlike the previous two specific instances, rather, the movie leaves out a vast majority of the descritpions of the sights and sounds which are talked about often in the book, for instance, chapter 111, The Pacific, almost exclusively about the scenerey of the voyage, is completely left out of the movie. This is probably because the directors found it better to show the scenery rather than have Ishmael tell us about it. The final difference is how many encounters with other ships, like the Samuel Endenbury, are missing from the movie, this most most likely deemed unimportant to the overall plot by the directer and probably was left out for this reason.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 11:55 AM