Book Report: Moby Dick
Author: Herman Melville
Publication Date: 1851
Pages: 452
Completion Date: 4/11/25
What I learned from this book:
The book is told from the viewpoint of Ishmael about his experience on the Pequod, a large whaling vessel in the late 1840’s. Its captain, Captain Ahab, is relentless in his insane pursuit of Moby Dick, the infamous White Whale. This whale bit off his lower leg and foot a couple years before and he barely survived. The book entailed an immense amount of detailed information about the different types of whales, whale physiology, what they eat, how they breathe, where they live, how they die after harpooning, how to extract the blubber, how to cook the meat, how they communicate with one another, other extraneous infomation and some stories about specific whales that were hunted over time.
The whale is a very specific one with its white color and other markings. It is known to be hard to get, largely due to its ability to get away from the harpooning boats by attacking and destroying the boats and killing the men inside – something uncommon to most whales. It was not until page 429 (out of 452) that Moby Dick was sighted. The remaining 23 pages took place over three days as they harpooned him, chased him & had two harpooning boats destroyed. At the end, the giant whale rammed his head into the main boat, destroying it, its cargo and all of its crew. Only Ishmael survived – by using a coffin made for Queequeg when he was sick (although he recovered and thus did not use the coffin). Ishmael was picked up by another boat after two days.
I did not like this book and found it very hard to read and finish. One interesting tidbit about this book is that each chapter was written and placed in a weekly periodical (magazine or newspaper). People read each chapter when the next issue came. Someone told me that it would be torture to sit down and read this book end-to-end. They recommended that I read it as it was intended to be written – a chapter or two per day and then wait to read another chapter or two the next day or so. This was good advice.
The individuals listed below are the main characters in the story.
Captain: Ahab
Chief Mate/First Mate: Starbuck
Second Mate: Stubb
Third Mate: Flask
First Harpooner: Queequeg – is in harpooning boat with Starbuck
Second Harpooner: Toshtego – is in harpooning boat with Stubb
Third Harpooner: Daggoo – is in harpooning boat with Flask
Storyteller: Ishmael
I learned the following things that will increase my perspective for success after prison:
1) While it is good to have a goal, it is not good to be absolutely crazy about achieving it, without regard for the cost in terms of money and lives about achieving it. Ahab killed himself and nearly all the crew in pursuit of the whale. Before prison, I had some of this in me. I now have a better handle on focusing on what is realistically achievable and what is not.
2) Revenge is never good – it is Ahab’s desire for revenge on Moby Dick for taking his leg that drove him so hard to capture and kill the whale. It is better to be more pro-active about positive goals/events than focus on revenge about something that happened in the past.
