Moby dick

Moby Dick by Herman Melville published 1851
Melville lived from august 1st 1819 to September 28 1891. And is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. Herman Melville was born in New York City. Later in 1847 he married Elizabeth Shaw, they had four children: two sons and two daughters. Also Melville spent a considerable amount of time on the seas as a sailor, and much of it in the Southern Seas.



Historical information about the setting
In Massachusetts in the 1800s whaling was a major industry and tradition and made the U.S. the whaling capital of the world. Whaling voyages could last a year or longer, and had very large profits for the crew and caption.

Characteristics of the genre
Action, history, violence, and the quest.

Moby Dick published 1851

Plot summary
Ishmael is the narrator and wants to board a whaling ship he has sailed on several vessels but never as a whaler he is in Massachusetts,  staying in a whalers inn where he is sharing a room with a harpooner who over time he becomes friends. Then they board a whaling ship adorned with the bones and teeth of sperm whales. A few whales are successfully caught and processed for their oil. From time to time, the ship encounters other whaling vessels. Ahab always demands information about Moby Dick from their captains. Later Ahab spots Moby dick and for three days he trying to catch him. He sends ship after ship on the hunt they are all damaged or sunk by the whale. Until Moby finally attacks the Pequod and sinks the ship killing all the crew and Ahab the only survivor is Ishmael who survives by floating on a coffin built for one of the harpooners who was sick and dying.

example that demonstrates the style
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago never mind how long precisely having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore.

Quotes
How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends

This quote is after Ishmael has to share a bed with another man at an inn. At first Ishmael is uncomfortable with the idea of sharing his bed with another man. But after he gets to know him they become good friends, and spend most the night smoking and talking.

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.

Ahab believes that Moby dick is the incarnation of evil and that killing him will stop evil and allow him to see things symbolically. For example he sees the loss of his legs as a cosmic evil and not just the outcome of a danger profession.

Biographical information about the author
He was lived from august 1st 1819 to September 28 1891. And is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. Herman Melville was born in New York City. Later in 1847 he married Elizabeth Shaw, they had four children: two sons and two daughters. Also Melville spent a considerable amount of time on the seas as a sailor, and much of it in the Southern Seas.

characters
==setting= The 19th century in Massachusetts New England and at sea onboard the Pequod. Mostly on the Pequod in open unchanging ocean. searching for Moby Dick

Significance of the opening scene
The opening scene tells of Ishmael traveling from New York to Bedford Massachusetts the whaling capital of the world. And about him missing the ferry and having to spend a night at an inn where he meets Queequeg.

symbols
Moby Dick = the embodiment of evil

The sip Pequod= symbol of doom panted black and covered with whales teeth

Significance of the ending/closing scene
The novel ends without completing the quest to kill Moby and turns into a tragedy when the Pequod sinks and everyone is killed except Ishmael and nature over powers mans attempt at revenge

stylistic prose
1.	Ishmael sees an old dirty panting at the inn which he eventually decides is a painting of a ship in a storm being attacked by a whale- this is foreshadowing what is to come later in the book

2.	 Ishmael thinks about the way that docks everywhere always have the most surprising people in any country – and how, in India, it’s the American Yankees who are the weird foreigners. – illustrates a different point of view

3.	in the chapel, there’s a painting hanging behind the pulpit, of a ship in a storm and an angel looking down on it from a sunny cloud. The front of the pulpit and the lectern where the Bible sits are shaped like the bow of a ship. – foreshadowing