NCHS AP English Language

CH 3 allusions (Chris Fitzer and Dani Lewis)

Ishmael enters the inn and sees this painting that appears to be nothing more than a blue abyss, but after a more serious look he noticed a black mass that he compares to the seven-headed sea-dwelling creature mentioned in the bible as coming to help destoy the earth (the leviathan). This scene is said to be of a norhtern (hyperborean) winter in which Time, which is normally stopped in a picture, actually keeps going. This picture, Ishmael decided, was of a storm-struck ship headed for the Cape Horn and the three visible perpendicular lines are the masts, on which the whale (leviathan) appears to be impaled.
Ishmael comments on the atmosphere of the bar as being dusky and filled with many nautical paraphenalia. Like Jonah, cursed to have a dangerous and miserable trip because he did not follow the orders of the Lord, the bartender called Jonah went around selling alcoholic drinks (deliriums and death) to the sailors, who also are cursed like Jonah.
He compares himself to being as cool Mt Hecla, which is a snow-covered volcano in Iceland.
PUN - Ishmael shouts for Peter Coffin when Queequeg "attacks" him, so in a sense he was calling out for death. He was calling for a "coffin" so its a pun because he was calling for help not death.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 9:53 PM