Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Whale and Elephant Spout Similarity

Whale and Elephant Spout Similarity Though comparing the whale and elephant in general bulk is preposterous—since in that particular the elephant stands to the whale much as a dog stands to the elephant—certain points of curious similitude exist. One such point is the spout. Just as the whale blows, the elephant often draws up water or dust in his trunk and then elevates and jets it forth in a stream, demonstrating an unexpected parallel between these vastly different creatures.

Inexpressibility and Mystical Qualities of the Whale’s Tail

Inexpressibility and Mystical Qualities of the Whale’s Tail The chapter concludes with the narrator’s inability to express the whale’s tail fully. At times, gestures in it would well grace a human hand yet remain wholly inexplicable. In extensive herds, these mystic gestures are so remarkable that hunters have declared them akin to Free-Mason signs and symbols, suggesting the whale intelligently converses with the world through these methods. Other motions in the whale’s general body are full of strangeness and unaccountable even to the most experienced hunters. However deeply one dissects the whale, one only goes skin deep—knowing neither the whale nor its tail, much less comprehending the face it has none of. The whale seems to say: thou shalt see my back parts, my tail, but my face shall not be seen. Yet the narrator cannot completely make out even those back parts, and despite all hints about the face, maintains the whale has no face.

第八十七章 The Grand Armada.

This chapter, titled CHAPTER 87. The Grand Armada, documents the Pequod’s passage through the Straits of Sunda, its encounter with an immense herd of sperm whales, the ship’s chase of the herd, evasion of pursuing Malay pirates, and Queequeg’s harpooning of a whale that leads the crew’s boat into the center of the panicked shoal, including the use of druggs to subdue multiple whales before the boat reaches the herd’s calm core. The chapter excerpt follows the Pequod’s boat as it encounters a vast, multi-layered sperm whale pod spanning at least two to three square miles, observes the peaceful behaviors of central pod whales including nursing mothers and calves, witnesses a wounded, rampaging whale trigger mass panic and collective flight across the entire herd, and details the boat’s narrow escape and the limited capture of drugged whales in the aftermath.