NCHS AP English Language

I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 5...ITS ALL OF THEM!!!

Wrapping Up Moby Dick

5 Problems to Solve

1) Research the ships we encounter that have biblical names. (You could find a great quotation in the Bible regarding Rachel.)
Laban, Jacob's uncle, had two daughters, Leah and Rachel, who was the younger daughter. Jacob wanted to marry Rachel and Laban promised her hand if Jacob would work for him for seven years. After seven years, Laban slipped Rachel's sister Leah into Jacob's tent in place of Rachel. When Jacob awoke and found himself married to Leah instead of Rachel, he had to work another seven years for Rachel, who ended up being Jacob's favorite wife. At first, she had trouble bearing children, so she gave her handmaiden, Bilhah, to Jacob for a concubine. But, she finally bore him two children, Joseph and Benjamin, who became Jacob's favorite sons. Also, she is one of the four Jewish matriarchs. Rachel from the bible died giving birth to Benjamin, but in Moby Dick, the ship, Rachel, ‘adopts’ Ishmael because they had lost the captain’s son.

Jeroboam I was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was an Ephraimite and he led a revolt against Solomon, inspired probably by the restlessness of northern Palestine under southern rule. Jeroboam fled to Egypt when the plot failed, but returned on the accession of Solomon's son, Rehoboam. When the new king would not satisfy the northerners, Jeroboam led a secession, leaving the house of David, only Judah and some of the areas of Benjamin. Jeroboam is notorious for fostering idolatry in his kingdom of Israel. His capital was first in Shechem and later at Tirzah. When Jeroboam died, he was succeeded by his son, Nadab.

2) Discuss the relationship between Pip and Ahab. Interpret, don't just summarize.
Ahab is at the top of the chain of being and he is the captain of the ship. Pip is at the bottom because he is a black boy who cannot serve the ship as the other men. In both the novel and the movie, Ahab says that Pip is him. This is ironic seeing that Ahab is white and Pip is black, showing that what Ahab says is not meant to be taken literally. For the king to recognize the servant as himself is something that rarely ever happens and it happens in the case of Ahab and Pip. Ahab is seen as the king of the ship and that everyone is to obey him because he is the captain. When Ahab recognizes Pip as his equal, or rather, as a mirror of himself, the chain of being becomes disorganized as the lowest person, the little black boy, goes up to the top with the king. At this period in time, Blacks are still regarded as slaves, therefore this is something as to which is almost impossible to happen. The Great Chain of Being, in which we have defined in Moby Dick earlier this quarter, has been flipped upside down as the lowest person has become equal to the king, by the king himself nonetheless. Ahab has gone and recognized what he sees in Pip and therefore proclaims him as equal to the status of the king. When Ahab brings Pip to his status, the lowest part of the chain of being has disappeared and interrupts the balance, foreshadowing the in which the Pequod was to experience very soon.

3) What is the purpose of Ahab's long speech to Starbuck (he talks about his past)?
Right before the chase of Moby Dick, both Ahab and Starbuck were on deck with each other. At this time, Ahab confesses to Starbuck about his past and how long he has been whaling. He talks about the forty years of which he has been out at sea and only went on land for a short while, during which time he wed and widowed a poor . For forty years he has been out at sea and he has confessed that he has been an old fool as to spend so much time away and what he has left behind since then. The leg that he has lost to Moby Dick is what he considers as a punishment to how Ahab has been out at sea more than he has been on land, which is where humans belong. He called himself an old fool and that he’s been chasing Moby Dick furiously and blindly as a more than that of a man. The purpose of why he confesses this to Starbuck is to show that Ahab is actually human, unlike what Starbuck thinks. At this time, Starbuck wants to kill Ahab because Ahab has become a senile maniac that has taken control of the whole crew and needs to be taken care of. By saying this speech to Starbuck, Ahab shows Starbuck that he is actually human that has been whaling for too long to the point in which it becomes his life. He basically says that whaling has become too embedded into him that he cannot change that until he captures Moby Dick. Ahab’s speech provides a window to both the readers and Starbuck that shows that Ahab is human and his full, yet crazy, reasoning as to why he chases after Moby Dick for so long and what he has sacrificed because he has been chasing Moby Dick.

4) Discuss Queequeg's coffin: its purpose, what it becomes symbolically.
Coffins are generally associated with . When people see coffins their mind naturally thinks of and dying. Because of this, it is doubly ironic that it is a coffin that saves Ishmael’s life. Though the coffin now symbolizes life, however, this may not be the case to Ishmael. No matter what purpose it is serving now, the coffin is an uncanny reminder of the crew that has just been killed and most of all, its former owner Queequeg. The coffin, though it keeps him safe from the sharks and birds, is still thought of as a "dirge-like main" (*). So even though the coffin is saving Ishmael’s life, it still keeps its sinister nature. The function of a coffin, its very reason for existing, is to help keep the body from the elements, and help it to not decay. The Ancient Egyptians used to embalm their , for this purpose, to keep them as immortal as possible. They would also build giant tombs to be a reminder of the deceased. A coffin, if used for its original purpose, can help a person 'become immortal', even if its only in the minds of those who see it. This coffin, however, is distorting its original purpose, which was for Queequeg. When Queequeg goes into his trance-like state, he asks for a coffin to be made of him. This is one of the only times when Queequeg is not there for Ishmael. It is ironic that during this time, the coffin is made, and that saves Ishmael’s life. It is also ironic that the other time when Queequeg is not there for Ishmael, is when Yojo tells Queequeg that Ishmael should pick the ship. Ishmael picks the Pequod which eventually leads to Queequeg’s . When the coffin is made for Queequeg, he even lays in it, which foreshadows his own . Soon after, however, he comes out of his stupor, and no longer needs the coffin. The next we hear of the coffin, the disgruntled carpenter has been ordered to make it into a life buoy. He complains about the wrongness this task, and when Ahab comes out on deck, he agrees, “Here now's the very dreaded symbol of grim , by a mere hap, made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life. A life-buoy of a coffin! Does it go further? Can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an immortality-preserver” (520). After berating the carpenter, he tells him to never let him see the coffin again. The coffin later makes its final appearance at the very end of the book, when, after Moby Dick’s attack, the Pequod sinks. Ishmael is left alive, and is able to float on Queequeg’s coffin, until he is picked up by the Rachel. Queequeg is able to take care of Ishmael and keep him alive, even in . It is very ironic that this should be how Ishmael ends his relationship with Queequeg when it started off with being introduced by Peter Coffin. In the end, this coffin, which started out as a symbol of , becomes an 'immortality preserver'.

5) Discuss the difference between 4 major points in the novel and the film.
One of the major differences between the book and the film is the whole situation of Queequeg and his coffin. In the book, Queequeg becomes sick with a fever and thinks he is going to die, so he asks the carpenter to make him a coffin. In the movie, he gets mad at Ahab for not helping the Rachel and goes into a trancelike state and refuses to come out of it; he asks Ishmael to ask the carpenter to make a coffin that floats because that’s how warriors were buried in his homeland. In the book, Queequeg lines the coffin with his harpoon and his idol; in the movie, however, Ishmael burns his idle and stabs his harpoon in the ground ands says “I will not harpoon again.” After he gets better, he gets out of the coffin and uses it as a chest for his belongings and draws the s on the lid of the coffin. In the movie, the coffin is never mentioned again after Queequeg comes out of his trance until the very end when Ishmael uses it as a float.
Another difference between the movie and book is the whole Pip going mad bit. In the movie, Pip stows away in the boat, and then gets knocked out of the boat. Ishmael throws him a floatation thing, and then freaks out about how they are leaving him. The rest of the people in the boat, save Queequeg, don't listen, and say the other two boats will get him. Needless to say, they don't and poor Pip is left floating at sea. After the chase is done, Ishmael freaks out again that Pip is left in the sea, and so his boat group goes out and looks for him, and eventually finds him, but not before an exciting, and completely fabricated, scene where Pip almost gets eaten by a shark. In the book, Pip replaces an oarsman, rather than stowing away. This being his first time out at sea, he is naturally a little jumpy, literally. When the whale bumps the bottom of the boat, Pip jumps out. Stubb fishes him out and tells him that he will leave him out there if he jumps again. True to his word, when Pip jumps out again, Stubb does nothing to save him, and says the two boats behind him will pick him up. They don't. Pip gets stranded out there at sea, and is finally picked up by the main ship.
The third major difference is the lack of Ishmael’s contemplating in the film. The book, being told from Ishmael's point of view, would naturally contain some of his thoughts on what is going on at the time. Ishmael, however, feels obligated to spend most of the book telling us, the readers, what he thinks about everything. Naturally, the movie can't convey everything that Ishmael thinks, so it settles for just showing some of the events that happen.
The last major difference is that of the ships in which the Pequod encounters. While in the film, they encounter only two, one being the Rachel and the other the name is unknown, the novel goes into more detail as the Pequod encounters eight ships.

Ellen (and) Wagner, Kelly (the) Snyder, Anh (or) Nguyen, Melissa (but) Hamptoon - B Period

posted by Ellen @ 8:34 AM