After realizing reading Moby Dick for plot was impractical, I started noticing a lot of the intricacies that seem to be paramount. The imagery is beautiful, not only landscapes and the ship but people. Melville takes paragraphs and sometimes chapters to describe a something. I stopped listening and reading for storyline and I noticed all the care that went into this masterpiece. The first time I noticed this was with Queequeg who of course Ishmael seems to be obsessed with. However horrifying his physical description is to picture the passage about his appearance is a beautifully written chapter. The next time I took notice was in chapter 23 when he describes the ocean “as indefinite as God”, I am enthralled by his ability to make things poetic. Again when Melville begins to detail the ships mates I was captivated by the description most prominently Starbuck. I like Starbucks character not necessarily physically but he seems to be the most down-to-earth and willing to speak his mind. One of his lines that fascinated me was when he said that “courage was one of the great staple outfits of the ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly wasted.” (pg 102) This concept made me stop and think for a while. It’s really true too much courage in this life-threatening line of work is almost more dangerous than cowardice. Yet, too little courage could be just as deadly. Melville again poetically describes Stubb and Flask, the second and third mates. He depicts Stubb as easy-going by saying, “he presided over his whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests.” (pg 104) Then he describes Flask as almost ignorant by saying, “that in his poor opinion, the wonderous whale was but a species of magnified mouse, or at least water-rat, requiring only little but circumvention and some small application of time and trouble in order to kill and boil.” (pg 105) The last character description that enticed me was of course the allusive and private Captain Ahab, although his physical description is detailed and interesting what really caught my attention was when he paces the deck and a description of the noise of his false leg is loud and obnoxious. This is later brought up in chapter 36 when his pacing is described as his “ivory stride” which is not only clever but rolls off the tongue beautifully.

Melville uses analogies, symbolism and allusive language habitually and it makes the novel seemingly meaningless and at the same time full of meaning. The novel pushes the limits on how many extraneous details and various forms of writing can be mangled and yet purposefully placed within this one work of art. And yes this is a work of art. It’s sometimes difficult to understand and muddled but everything seems to have a reason and all the imagery and description sometimes foreshadow things. If Melville wanted to tell this tale as a short story he very easily could which was proven by those children’s books, but he wanted this to be more, much more.