Monday, November 13, 2006

Novel/Movie-Alissa Davis

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

The first reference to the numinous is left out of the movie. Even though it is a flashback that Ishmael endures after finding Queequeg's arm around him at night, the movie fails to mention this reference to the numinous as having any connection to past events. Ishmael has been touched by the numinous once before, when he was a child, and he feels this same sensation again.

One chapter that is different between the book and the movie is the chapter when Pip jumps out of the boat and is lost at sea. In the book, Pip becomes frightened and jumps out of the boat, and he is immediately rescued by the crew and is warned not to jump again or they would leave him out at sea. However, Pip does jump out of the boat again and is left behind while they chase the whale. The book does not describe Pip's rescue, but rather says that the ship itself rescued him. In the movie, Pip is left behind the second time for them to chase a whale, but Pip is left out at sea for what seems a much longer span of time. When the crew returns to the ship, a search party with boats is organized to go find Pip. But while in the book, the source of Pip's insanity is the vast expanse and loneliness of the sea where he seems to be touched by the numinous, in the movie, Pip is driven insane by the sight of the blood and guts of the whale on deck.

One of the important chapters in the book is the chapter where Stubb and Flask kill the right whale and its head is sitting on the deck. As they are talking over it, Fedallah was comparing the wrinkles on his hand to the wrinkles on the whale, forshadowing Fedallah's fate. Fedallah also seemed to occupy Ahab's shadow and lengthen it, symbolizing how their personalities are dissimilar and Fedallah could be Ahab's dark side(his shadow). This is yet another reference to the numinous that is left out of the movie that holds great importance in the novel.

In the book, there was a great emphasis on the fact that Ahab was comparing the whale to the sphinx. Although Ahab's obsession with the whale is apparent in the movie, the novel shows his soliloquy when he is talking to the whale on the deck of the ship. He sees the whale as an obstacle that must be outsmarted in order to be defeated. Ahab risks everything to defeat Moby Dick, and even though his motives are obviously shady in the book, the movie fails to address Ahab's actual feelings of the whale as a malevolent creature.

posted by Anonymous @ 8:39 AM