NCHS AP English Language

#10 Chapter 51- Alissa Davis and Lindsay Miller

By not focusing on the awe and terror of vast whiteness, but noticing instead the tiny, the tender, the tragic and the true, the “ungraspable phantom of life, ” as represented by the whale and his spirit spout
Found at: http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/libtech/stringer/melnab.doc

What is the spirit spout? The spirit spout is the trail that the crew follows in pursuit of Moby Dick. What is it ethereally to the crew? In the crew's mind, the spirit spout is Moby Dick. After awhile in pursuit of the creature, eventually when one sees the spirit spout, one would say "Look, there is Moby Dick". In fact, there is not Moby Dick. There is the spirit spout, but Moby Dick is actually below the water. Thus, the crew begins to focus on the spirit spout as Moby Dick, which is good for their spirits. Chasing after a spout of water is not as scary as chasing after a huge white whale. Therefore, their morale about defeating this whale is much higher than it should be because a spirit spout is not intimidating in any shape or form and as they subconsciously view it as Moby Dick, in a way, that influences what the crew does dramatically. It is also, just like Moby Dick, the full whale, a personified form of pursuing something that one can never gain. The spirit spout and Moby Dick can never be grasped, ever; therefore, it is an embodiment of want and frustration as well.

posted by Anonymous @ 3:03 PM