NCHS AP English Language

Wrapping It All Up. . .By Rebecca Hall, Alex Wikoff and Corinne McConnell

Wrapping Up Moby Dick

1) Research the ships we encounter that have biblical names.

In the Bible, Rachel was barren until after much intense prayer she was granted sons by God. She ultimately (and tragically) died in childbirth.

In Moby Dick, we ironically encounter a ship called none other than Rachel whose captain begs Ahab to help it find its "lost son."

Recall that in the Great Chain of Being, we labeled Ahab as the "God"- the highest power of the ship. One can't help but speculate that author perhaps included this segment in the book to highlight the differences between the two "Gods" we primarily deal with in the book (excluding the pagan god of Queequeg).

We of course have the Christian God of Starbuck, a kind family-oriented man who believes in a day's work for a day's pay. The Christian God is a compassionate God whom we juxtaposition to "God" Ahab. By denying the ship Rachel, who is in a sense "praying" for a son, his help, the illumination of Ahab's true motives is finally complete and we are assured that Ahab is not chasing a nessecary evil but a wild whim in which he employs the help of the entire ship.

Jeroboam is another ship we encounter whose inclinations should be fairly obvious following a little research on who Jeroboam himself was.

The Biblical Jeroboam "suffers because of obstinacy and his failure to heed the warnings of a prophet." Similarly, the ship Jeroboam suffers because of his failure to heed the warnings of the prophet Gabriel, as crazed as he may be. Gabriel warns Ahab not to chase the white whale, and later Ahab suffers for his failure to heed this warning.

-Brought to you by Rebecca Hall, Alex Wikoff and Corinne McConnell

posted by Rebecca @ 4:20 PM