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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
It took me two years from start to finish, with about a year's break after getting 60% done. There was too much history of the whale & whaling to hold my attention.
When I began reading this book in graduate school, I got to the first few pages and found myself laughing out loud. And I read on. And laughed more. Out loud. On the bus. At home. And then I went to class and asked, "is anyone else finding this book hilarious?" And one other student said, "Yes! I thought I was the only one!" The more people I talk to, the more I find people here and there who get Melville's very dry, very witty humor. Case in point: there is a chapter in which sailors dance around the deck of a ship wearing a whale's penis as a hat. There is also a homosexual relationship in this book that most people miss. If you read this book understanding that it is comedy, it will change your understanding of it.
This book has one of the most quoted opening lines and for good reason. This book is often seen as a classic and it definitely deserves that title.
Impossible to rate. Densely packed, it’s the kind of novel that’s only sprung from autobiographical inspiration, and I enjoyed it immensely.
I’m willing to be Cormac McCarthy read this more than once.
I’m willing to be Cormac McCarthy read this more than once.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not going to lie, this was a struggle to get through. It started off strong enough, with an introduction to the main character, Ishmael, through where he meets his companion, Queequeg, and the both of them board the Pequod, where they will then hunt for the infamous Moby Dick who bit off their captain, Ahab's, leg. In an act of revenge, Ahab has gone on a mission to hunt down the white whale Moby Dick and murder it for its act of cruelty against his leg. Among the story, you will find many unnecessary details that do little to nothing to move the story along; including but not limited to whale fun facts supplied by our narrator, Ishmael, down to the nitty gritty details as to the different usages whale sperm has for humans. Melville is the exact type of author that we all hate reading in English classes; will spend at least two full pages talking about the interior of a whale, spares one sentence to the death of a major character. While there is some beautiful, poetry-like writing hidden within this book, I'm not going to lie and say that I understand what he's talking about half of the time. I feel like you could get the entire gist of this novel by reading the first one hundred or so pages and then skipping to the last hundred or so pages. A good 200 pages of filler! As for a deeper analysis (for when I inevitably have to write a paper about this for the English class I had to read this for)
future self: something about warnings against the dangers of taking revenge against nature and animals who are just doing what they have to do to survive, something about the cruelty of whaling and the irony of Ahab resorting to violence against the whale for taking his leg when the whole reason Moby Dick took his leg in the first place was because the whale was defending itself against being killed, something about the difference between Ahab and the other captain who got his arm taken off by Moby Dick and instead of going for revenge, he was just grateful to still be alive, something about everyone except for Ishmael dying at the end, and Ishmael only staying alive by the coffin that they built for Queequeg, how the coffin symbolizes both life and death in the way they built it because they thought Queegqueg would die but it ultimately ended up saving a life.
How Moby Dick relates to romanticism ... does it also include naturalist elements? idk. explore that, maybe.
future self: something about warnings against the dangers of taking revenge against nature and animals who are just doing what they have to do to survive, something about the cruelty of whaling and the irony of Ahab resorting to violence against the whale for taking his leg when the whole reason Moby Dick took his leg in the first place was because the whale was defending itself against being killed, something about the difference between Ahab and the other captain who got his arm taken off by Moby Dick and instead of going for revenge, he was just grateful to still be alive, something about everyone except for Ishmael dying at the end, and Ishmael only staying alive by the coffin that they built for Queequeg, how the coffin symbolizes both life and death in the way they built it because they thought Queegqueg would die but it ultimately ended up saving a life.
How Moby Dick relates to romanticism ... does it also include naturalist elements? idk. explore that, maybe.
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
A grand dissertation on whales and whaling; with a good story to surround it.
Of all things to make a person give up on Moby Dick - it was the whale killing for me. I couldn’t stomach it, thinking of people hunting and killing those majestic creatures. It disgusted and upset me. I couldn’t focus on anything else except my own heart crying out for the whales! Not a reaction I thought I’d have. Lol. I will say that the prose is at times hilarious, absurd, homo erotic, which was what made me really want to stick it through. (Squeeze! Squeeze!) Just couldn’t.