Daniel Wriggins 1) While Ishmael his own distinction from the reader clear, he is often characterized through his

narration as reasonable, honest, and self-reflecting. These qualities may produce an identification with Ishmael that colors the novels events. How does a feeling of identification with Ishmael (and at some times, a feeling of solidarity) effect interpretation of the storyline? Are there aspects of the narration that subvert a readers identification with Ishmael? And what does the centralization of a working class narrator mean for American literature? 2) In the consecutive chapters Merry Christmas and The Lee Shore, we see romantic expressions of a longing for the ocean, whaling, and life-affirming hardship. Peleg and Bilbad are melancholy at leaving the Pequod as it heads off, and Bulkington is heading off on another long voyage after such a short time on shore. Ishmaels description of Bulkington presents us with a problem of self-contradiction. if wonderfullest things are ever the unmentionable and deep memories yield no epitaphs, then is Melvilles lengthy and descriptive novel not a futile attempt at describing the indescribable? If Ishmael truly believes this and is called to the sea as he describes on the first few pages, then what purpose does his narrative serve? 3) Much of Moby Dick is based on Melvilles experiences on a whaling ship called the Acushnet, a ship Melville abandoned in the Marquesas Islands because of a tyrannical captain. Before Moby Dick, Melville wrote adventure novels like Typee and Omoo which he claimed were factual accounts of his adventures in the Pacific islands. Is considering Moby Dick as autobiographical useful? And what can we learn about American public sentiment from the fact that Moby Dick was significantly less successful than his earlier, lighter novels? 4) There seem to be elements of both racism and satire against racism in Melvilles depiction of Queequeg. While he is called a cannibal, a savage, and a pagan and he speaks in a broken accent, he is also depicted as courteous and loyal. Does racism, and the

idea of Queequeg as a childlike savage dominate his characterization? Or are Melvilles ideas progressive for the era? 5) Folks, what is with the whiteness of the whale?
Elizabeth Grumer

1.) As Prof. Zwarg mentioned last class, Moby-Dick does not really begin with Call me Ishmael (14). While that's the first line of the first chapter, by the time we get there, we've already met with a wealth of prefatory information. These include the Entomology, listing whale in several languages, and the Extracts, which appears to be everything Herman Melville could find on Wikiquote's whale page. Why does Melville begin with these sections? What do they add? For one, they do seem to imply a vast cultural fascination with whales, from Fiji to Iceland beginning in Genesis, the dawn of time (from a certain standpoint). 2.) We are treated to one of Father Mapple's fiery sermons. Where does Father Mapple fall in continuum of religious figures we've read Rev. Boyer from The Coquette, Cotton Mather, Clara's cult-creating father in Wieland? What role does religion seem to play, so far, in Moby-Dick? At the beginning of Chapter Seventeen, Ishmael seems to have something pretty important to say on the subject, asking that Heaven have mercy on us all Presbyterians and Pagans alike for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending (79). 3.) What is the important of Bulkington? We meet him once, he disappears, and then we get a chapter-long epigraph to him Chapter Twenty-Three, The Lee Shore. What does Bulkington stand for? Why does he deserve such monument? Does he merely portend what is to come? 4.) On the subject of monuments, graves and memorials to the dead are already a motif, in Moby-Dick. The Lee Shore is the stoneless grave of Bulkington (96). Earlier, in Chapter Seven, Ishmael discovers several marble tablets dedicated to those who have perished at sea. How does this pattern of dead-without-graves fit with the literature we have already read the many men lost by Cabeza de Vaca; the shipwrecked, magically unharmed cast of The Tempest; the late Eliza Wharton, whose friends buy her a plaque; the lost, nameless (ostensibly) Leonor in The Raven?
Rita Marie Hall