Maria’s Reviews > Moby-Dick > Status Update

Ahab is just so obsessed with this poor whale, lay off him already. He’s talking to the dead sperm whale that Stubb killed, muttering about how these whales are witnesses to the greatest tragedies of the ocean, yet now this whale is dead and beheaded…

I think this chapter was actually pretty nice. Of course it ends off with pure glaze to the whale.

Okay so sharks wanna eat the sperm whale right by the boat… got it.

I really like this chapter; Ishmael (or Melville?) questions the hypocrisy between Stubb eating a sperm whale right by a sperm-oil lamp with humanity eating animals. He calls us cannibals by the very fact that our way of eating meat (especially in that time) is more barbaric than we may realize.

This chapter was very hilarious. The whole scene of Stubb making Fleece give a sermon to sharks was quite comedic, especially when sharks were probably considered evil beings during this time. I wonder, were sharks more hated than Moby Dick? Probably not, according to Ahab.

So now we’re getting into even more details about the ways of harpooning.

Ishmael/Melville makes a good argument here that harpooners are forced to bear so much superhuman strength, to the detriment of capturing their whale. I also can’t help but think that at least most whales get away…

Stubb killed a whale… that poor whale.

The ending to that chapter was really deep, I love the way Ishmael and whalemen view death. Why fear it when death is technically always nearby no matter what?

I really liked this chapter, maybe it’s the mystical feeling of the squid and the way he describes it, but I really felt the amazement of seeing one. I think this is because he describes it as being highly unusual and unlikely?