ASSIGNMENT #2

1.  What do Captain Ahab’s pacing and the mark of his footprints on the deck represent? Cite details from the story to support your answer.

b) His continuing obsession with Moby-Dick

I think this is the correct answer because his continuous obsession with Moby-Dick was consuming him. And that did not let him sleep at nights. All the anxiousness he felt he could not control it and he actually was consume by his obsession and that lead him to madness.

2.  Why does Captain Ahab decide to offer his men a gold piece for finding the great whale?  Provide details about his possible motivation.

He was trying to take advantage of his crew’s greed, because that was there weakest point, money. They were greedy and materialists and Captain Ahab took advantage of that for his own ambition because he did not care about money he just care about caching that wale.

3.  Starbuck has very particular objections to the pursuit of Moby-Dick.  Find the details that outline his objections, and explain how Ahab persuades Starbuck to help him.

“Vengeance on a dumb brute!” cried Starbuck, “that simply smote these from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.” I saw that he persuade him by telling him a emotionally speech that I did not fully understand because of the dialect they use but at the end Strbucks seems to calm down and them Ahab says Starbucks now is mine cannot oppose me now.

4.  As the men toast the coming fight with the whale and anticipate their victory, Ahab grabs the intersection of the steel weapons and twists and shakes them at Starbuck, Stubbs, and Flask.  What is Ahab trying to accomplish with this action?  Cite a detail from the selection that supports your answer.

c) He is trying to infuse them with the magnitude of his own passion to kill Moby-Dick.

5.  Moby-Dick is a symbol.   Research the following passages in the Bible that refer to Jonas and the whale and Leviathan.  Explain how Melville’s portrayal of Moby-Dick might be inspired by them.

Well now that I already read the passage from the bible, I think that maybe Mellville try to portrait the idea of god in the story meaning that the whale is send by god to punished does that misbehave, and the wale can be God himself that punished the ones who needs punishment.. Like in the story that Jonas disobeys God, God send the whale to eat him till hi regrets it and prays. I think that Moby-Dick represents an evil temptation and those who are do not avoid that temptation are the ones who are severely punished. It is just like in real life wit different temptations like drugs, stealing, alcohol and many others temptations that we should avoid in order to get to the “holly temple”