This is my first time reading Moby Dick and as I venture further into the novel, I remain undecided on how I feel about it. Some chapters are amazing and I find myself completely enthralled while others- eh, not so much. The chapter in particular, that almost killed me was the “Cetology” chapter, it seemed that no matter how hard I tried to focus on the page, my mind was thinking about other things. However, this chapter contained, what was for me, a very important line, but more on that later.

I must confess that Ishmael sometimes gets on my nerves; he’s almost too passive and too distanced from the action in the novel. In particular, I found myself getting frustrated with him in chapter 41. In the previous chapter the other sailors are introduced. The chapter is presented as a play with stage directions. I had assumed that Ishmael was not present for this scene because many of the other chapters that contain these stage directions are chapters that Ishmael is probably not witnessing directly (I’m thinking chapter 37 “Sunset”). But then, at the start of chapter 41, he feels the need to tell the reader that he was, in fact, present for the singing, fighting and comrade that takes place in the previous chapter. At first I was a little miffed with him, I felt like this was almost a kind of cop-out, like he was avoiding acknowledging his part in the action of the novel.

But now, as I delve deeper into the story, I find myself really liking Ishmael. Melville writes Ishmael as a character who is telling his story quite some time after the events of the novel have come to pass. He tells the story like it is, often times with vivid, dense details and without judgment. There is such gravity to the way that he tells the story that I, as the reader, feel that I have no reason to question his reliability as a narrator, even when I am not entirely sure he is witnessing the events he is talking about.

It wasn’t until I was reading chapter 41, then I remembered a line from a previous chapter that had struck me. In the “Cetology” chapter Ishmael states “I am the architect, not the builder” (116). I realized, in retrospect, that this line kind of sums up Ishmael perfectly. His job, as this novel’s narrator is to construct the story for the reader. In order for him to design the novel, he has to distance himself from the action. If he tells the story as a “builder”, someone who is knee-deep in the trenches, he’s going to lack perspective. I personally think that this would completely alter the almost omniscient tone of the novel. I almost feel bad now for getting irritated with him before, I’ve come to realize that in order for him to properly tell the story, he must remain as passive as possible.