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alt title(s): Moby Dick
Described by many as the greatest book in the English language,
Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, by
Herman Melville, is a story about
the hunt of a wicked whale by a madman, or
a book about whaling and cetology. You choose.
Either way, the plot follows a man that, infatuated with the sea (apparently, it's a periodical thing), decides to go aboard a whaling ship to try out how whaling feels. He and his
newly-met best friend Queequeg go upon the
Pequod under the comand of the
monomaniac Captain Ahab, and eventually get in the middle of his maniac hunt for Moby Dick, the titular "White Whale" that ate his leg. Tragedy ensues.
Moby-Dick is
full of symbolism, much of which
is probably ass-pulled. Common meanings for the titular whale, for instance, are: nature, fate, the ocean's fury itself, and
God (as an invincible opponent who is
never actually overcome at any point in the story).
Despite popular belief, Moby Dick (who, although being the titular character, doesn't sport an hyphen in his name) isn't an "albino" whale. He's got a white
hump and
forehead. Taking that whales don't go to surface that much, that might be why it seems he's
totally white. But he isn't.
This book is part of the Hollywoodian
Small Reference Pools. Despite any real-life literary merits, it is convenient shorthand for "huge boring
doorstopper assigned for reading by high-school teachers" in any given kids series.
This book contains examples of:
- Acceptable Targets (Established albinos as one of them)
- Achey Scars (Captain Ahab's lost leg, arguably)
- Alternative Character Interpretation (Captain Ahab - revenge-obsessed madman or Tragic Hero?)
- Author Filibuster (Cetology and all aspects of whale fishing; All, I say. But they're interesting.)
- Remove the even-numbered chapters, and you've got an encyclopedia of whaling. Remove the odd-numbered chapters, and you've got an adventure story. And that story still has a bit of the encyclopedia.
- Chekhovs Gun Queequeg's coffin
- Determinator (Captain Ahab)
- The Trope Codifier of all self-destructive forms. Being accused of being Captain Ahab means that unless a character changes their chosen course, and quickly, they are going to destroy themselves.
- Doorstopper
- Everything's Squishier With Cephalopods: The crew of the Pequod once gets to spot a giant squid, and find it even scarier than Moby Dick himself.
- Food Porn: Chapters 15 is about eating... chowder.
- Fun With Foreign Languages (Stubb's conversation with the captain of the Rosebud)
- Filler - Chapters "Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales", "Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes", and "Of Whales in Paint". Exactly What It Says On The Tin.
- Foreshadowing - Chapter 40, "The Line"
- Have A Gay Old Time (A book about the hunt of a sperm whale name Moby Dick. Do the math)
- This editor believes it was a conscious decision — late in the book, Ahab is implied to have lost his genitalia either to Moby Dick or to an accident where his peg leg is jammed into his pelvis.
- How about the blubber refining scene, where the slicer wears an overcoat that's little more than fresh whale foreskin?
- To be fair, whale foreskin was used by mariners for a lot of things... other than trophies.
- He Who Fights Monsters (Captain Ahab and, to a lesser extent, any whaler)
- Ho Yay (Ishmael and Queequeg)
- The most egregious examples of this appear in the chapter called "A Squeeze of the Hand", which is about the delights of immersing one's hands in sperm whale oil and kneading it to keep it liquid.
- "Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness."
- Intentionally Awkward Title - subverted... or was it?
- The Ishmael (Trope Namer)
- It Was His Sled (The ending)
- Kill Em All - Everyone except Ishmael.
- Karmic Death (Ahab drowns when he is pulled underwater by Moby Dick.)
- Ignored Epiphany (Ahab briefly reconsiders killing Moby Dick. Briefly.)
- Louis Cypher (Fedallah, possibly.)
- The Mutiny ( In Chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story")
- Noodle Incident ("That deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa.")
- No Manof Woman Born (Courtesy of Fedallah)
- Pet The Dog (Ahab and Pip in Chapter 125, "The Log and Line")
- Pick On Someone Your Own Species (It's practically the textbook for this trope)
- Rage Against The Heavens (Ahab, arguably.)
- Revenge (Again, practically the textbook example.)
- Also, Revenge Before Reason. Quoth Starbuck: "Vengeance on a dumb brute! That simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness!"
- Ripped From The Headlines (The whale was based off of a similarly destructive whale named Mocha Dick that plagued Bermuda.)
- Science Marches On: While the author was very knowledgeable about cetology, some fact he used have since been proven to be inaccurate.
- Taking You With Me: The whale takes Ahab with him. Or is that the other way round?
- Talk Like A Pirate: "Avast!"
- Truth In Television: Believe it or not, this book was based very heavily on a true story. Although, the story of Moby Dick is quite a "softened" version of the actual events - the real tale is far more gruesome and chilling. Read for yourself
. Also, it should be noted the angry ship-sinking cetacean was actually a Sperm Whale.
- Values Dissonance: Given the modern opinion of whalers in much of the Western world, modern readers probably usually consider Moby's destruction of the Pequod and crew a clear act of self defense.
- Vindicated By History (Melville wasn't that popular in his day, and this work in particular took several decades to attain the critical status it enjoys today)
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic
- You Cant Fight Fate
