Response Journal Week 11 - Kalil

Although finishing was gratifying in some sense (I truly feel accomplished for having read this entire book), I do not agree with Caleb and Gabriel. While some books are deeply satisfying to finish, many others have the opposite effect. In the case of Moby-Dick, although the conclusion was not at all unexpected, the epilogue was bizarrely short, in a way that left me wanting more. Since the very beginning of the novel, there is one question that we have all been asking: who is Ishmael? Despite him being our narrator, he is practically absent from the book, playing the role only of an observer. While it was obvious to me that Ishmael would survive, despite being aware that the Pequod would sink, I had expected some kind of expository epilogue that would give at least a modicum of information about Ishmael. Instead we are given a single paragraph in which he claims that Fate has allowed him to survive, and that the Rachel has found him, an orphan. To be fair, his characterization of himself as an orphan is rather poignant, but not for the reason it appears in the epilogue. Ishmael uses the term to describe the loss of his boat, and thereby his home and family. Yet he was never truly a part of the action, or one of the main players on the boat. He was always detached; Ishmael was already an orphan on the boat. Thus, when the boat sank, he didn’t have to go down with it, for it was not a part of him, nor the reverse. Ishmael was an orphan from the start, at least figuratively, in the sense that he was a loner, and sometimes a fly on the wall. As Caleb noted, these chapters play strongly on the unity of the ship, and show the way the crew of the Pequod acts as one, which only serves to reinforce Ishmael’s aloof nature. He is not truly a part of the ship, and merely by the fact that he is remarking on it, he cannot be taking part in it.
As one would expect, these last chapters show Ahab in the height of his madness, although he has rare moments of lucidity. When Starbuck, on the second day of the chase, urges him to reconsider, he admits that he wants to, but claims that he can’t. Although he does realize the foolhardy nature of his quest, he is still too caught up in his own monomania to turn back. He again professes his fatalism, but also his belief that people do not change. “Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole act’s immutably decreed. ‘Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders. Look thou, underling! that thou obeyest mine” (418). On the final day of the chase, the hunted becomes the hunter, though it seems to me that this has always been the case. The Pequod has always been in the dark, bumbling about until they stumbled upon Moby-Dick. It is clear that the whale has always been in control, so this is not a role reversal so much as it is a role realization. Finally, I’d just like to point out that Melville did an excellent job of capturing the horror of the Pequod sinking, “Soon they through dim, bewildering mediums saw her sidelong fading phantom, as in the gaseous Fata Morgana; only the uppermost masts out of water; while fixed by infatuation, or fidelity, or fate, to their once lofty perches, the pagan harpooneers still maintained their sinking lookouts on the sea. And now, concentric circles seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew, and each floating oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip of the Pequod out of sight” (426).
As for the movie, I asked my dad about any professors he knows that have read Moby-Dick. First he told me that one of his post-docs had just read it, although he’s an oceanographer, he is a very interesting person, and I’m sure he would be happy to talk to us. He also told me that my next door neighbor is a Beowulf scholar, so I asked her, and she told me she’d ask around for an english professor who would be willing (she hasn’t read it). Additionally, I know a linguist, and she might be willing to talk to us about the language in the novel. Finally, I emailed Matt Kish again, and hopefully he’ll get back to me. Structurally, I think we only really need to ask one question, which we will not get a definitive answer to (like Ishmael). We could still combine it with Caleb’s idea of giving some historical background/taking a trip up to whatever town he was talking about last week, but we need to get started now if we do that. In class we ought to come up with a schedule, as well as some kind of division of labor, just so that we can have some kind of organized plan. Also, did anyone email Morgan Freeman yet?