Moby Dick

While reading this strange chapter I couldn’t decide whether this was some kind of ghost-whale, small and skittish whale, or if this was all in their heads. And afterwards, I couldn’t really imagine the point of this chapter, I mean it consisted of a strange occurence at sea of the ship constantly hearing a spout for a few days, with no sign of a whale, getting completely unsettled after a while, then it just stopped happening. I can understand how this can be seen as maybe this added layer of mysticism to the ocean, or a question of men’s sanity, or both, but it was the unresolved issue that left me if anything slightly upset. But to analyze…

The ocean has always been a mystical thing in human history. In any ancient culture large bodies of waters are attributed with Gods, monsters, and sometimes given both destructive and nurturive qualities. The spirit spout reminded me a little bit about that. Even though it was the 18th centurey, this scene reminded me of the odyssey somewhat, of Jason and the Argonauts, any old sea story really of sailors on a quest encountering mythical things in the ocean. I’m still not convinced that the Pequod didn’t just encounter a whale or something they never were able to spot though. When we discussed in class about this event being caused by mass delusion I’m not sure I bought it. I could understand if it was just Ishmael just hearing it or another member of the crew but the fact that they all heard it I think shows that it was a real event, whether not it was natural or supernatural was left probably ambigiously by Melville in my opinion. Though he did make it a point to make it sound as mysterious as possible.

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