The NPL Teen Writers' Review

“Call me Ishmael”  is considered one of the most famous openings in American literature, and I read it. That’s right, I read Moby Dick from start to finish. If I sound a little proud, it is because reading this 822 page book felt like a huge undertaking. Moby Dick is no Harry Potter, it doesn’t read easy. It is a book filled with extended soliloquies and some of the most boring descriptions of sea life possible. At the same time it is a wonderful narrative of one man’s attempt to defy an impossible adversary. Whether or not you like it is beside the point, because it is a literary classic and a must read for the simple reason that it is still around.

The book begins with Ishmael’s introduction, he tells us who he is and then explains his love of the sea. He explains that he is truly fulfilled by the hard work given to shipmates and every few years or so he has to return to the sea. If it weren’t for Ishmael’s early narrative I would never have been able to finish the book. If it had started much like the sizeable middle portion, which is a bit too much whale terminology, I would have brought the thing right back the library.  But as it happens the book begins with Ishmael and I was compelled to continue. Ishmael when we meet him is getting ready to return to the sea for another voyage, this time on a whaling ship. It is explained that before this he has only been a ship hand on merchant ships and is interested in whaling. He goes to Nantucket, “The whaling capital of the world,” in hopes of finding work.

This portion of the book, wherein Ishmael goes to Nantucket, is perhaps my favorite. This is due in large part to the introduction to Queequeg. Queequeg is a native who carries around a shrunken head and wooden idol. He meets our narrator when they are forced to share a bed at an inn. The humorous meeting is milked for all its worth as the two end up (accidently of course) cuddling the next morning. Queequeg is used as an example of a broken English dialect, using the suffix “ee”, in many words. Queequeg is my favorite character of the book or at least the most memorable. When Queequeg is seen through the eyes of Ishmael he is sometimes backwards, having strange beliefs and practices, but I find this too enjoyable about the book. Ishmael realizes that to Queequeg, he probably seems just as backwards and strange, which felt to me a very real depiction of foreigner or minority relations. It gives the reader a sense that while there are still preconceptions about the world diversity, we can live with it if we acknowledge these differences rather than hiding them.

The rest of the book was less enjoyable as it is about the conflict between Ahab and Moby Dick. In this portion of the tale Ishmael is prone to lengthy descriptions of “the spermaceti”, having an entire chapter devoted to terminology. One can say this about Mr. Melville though, he was passionate about whaling. After these rather jarring sections, I found it hard to get back into the book but it is mostly about Ahab being repeatedly warned. He’s warned by crazy prophets, he’s warned by his crew, yet he is still intent on killing Moby Dick.The ending of the book sees the crew of the Pequod and Captain Ahab having, not 1 but 3, encounters with Moby Dick.  Of course they escape the first two but the Pequod is sunken by Moby Dick on the third day. The only one to survive is Ishmael and he clings to Queequeg’s coffin. I ask myself now, why did Ahab continue? Why, when he had been told repeatedly that his quest would lead only to his death? The only answer I can come up with is another question that was thrust upon in one the earlier chapters ; why did Jonah defy god, to end up in the belly of the whale?

When “The Whale” was originally published in 1851, it got mixed reviews. Herman Melville did not gain any lasting acclaim for it and died in obscurity – as testament to this is that in his obituary they called him Henry.

Book review by Aaron