Not until yesterday\u2019s class had I put any thought to the idea that the chapter named \u201cThe Spirit-Spout\u201d might indeed by a premonition of the future of the Pequod. \u00a0But as I reread the chapter, I found that I had underlined the following passage in my first reading,<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd had you watched Ahab\u2019s face that night, you would have thought that in him also two different things were warring. \u00a0While his one live leg made lively echoes along the deck, every stroke of his dead limb sounded like a coffin-tap. \u00a0On life and death this old man walked.\u00a0 But though the ship so swiftly sped, and though from every eye, like arrows, the eager glances shot, yet the silvery jet was no more seen that night. Every sailor swore he saw it once, but not a second time.\u201d (225)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The second sentence of the passage especially struck me because of the image of Ahab as man who is at the same time alive and dead, \u201chis one live leg\u2026every stroke of his dead limb\u2026\u201d(225)\u00a0 Although Ahab often times seems to hide in his cabin, the Pequod is his tool of accomplishing his goal of killing the white whale; thus the every lives of the Pequod and her crew hang on his decisions and mood.\u00a0 Thus second sentence seems to suggest that the Pequod hangs on the balance of life and death and Ahab\u2019s ivory leg is a reminder of the possible ensuing death.\u00a0 Furthermore, is Ishmael suggesting that the voyage could possibly go either way; success or failure?<\/p>\n
I believe that that question is answered with the phantom spout or \u201cSpirit-Spout\u201d. \u00a0It is as though nature is teasing Ahab and his crew.\u00a0 The spout is a reminder that the Pequod had a choice to break from Ahab\u2019s devious plan to kill the white whale but chose not to.\u00a0 Thus every night the phantom spout reminds them of their doomed journey.\u00a0 It is as though a ghost lurks in the background, haunting every member of the crew.\u00a0 The warning of doom did not end with the phantom spout, Ishmael also comments on the unusual birds that also haunt the deck. \u00a0He states, \u201cAnd every morning, perched on our stays, row of these birds were seen; and spite of our hootings, for a long time obstinately clung to the hemp, as though they deemed our ship some drifting, uninhabited<\/strong> craft; a thing appointed to desolation\u2026\u201d (226) He suggests that perhaps nature, through the actions of the birds, has deemed the boat and its crew dead. \u00a0Perhaps the ship and the crew have become ghosts at sea just like the \u201cSpirit-Spout\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not until yesterday\u2019s class had I put any thought to the idea that the chapter named \u201cThe Spirit-Spout\u201d might indeed by a premonition of the future of the Pequod. \u00a0But as I reread the chapter, I found that I had underlined the following passage in my first reading, \u201cAnd had you watched Ahab\u2019s face that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}