Chapter 109: Moby Dick

After finding leaks in the barrels containing oil Starbuck tells Ahab and eventually Ahab comands that the barrels be fixed. However Ishmael believes that he only does this so that there isn't an uproar form the crew. Just as he did when he decided that he would go for a few other whales besides just Moby Dick. Another sign that Ahab has gone completely insane with passion for killing Moby Dick, he is willing to risk their whole supply of oil and let down hundreds of people at home who are part owners of the ship.

Chapter 108: Moby Dick

"Yes, now that i think of it, here's his bedfellow"

The carpenter talks of the whale bone leg being Ahab's bedmate which is actually true in a sense. Ahab does have a wife but he has pretty much given them up to go after whales or Moby Dick. So he has "married" into whaling and probably loves whaling more than he does his wife.

Chapter 107: Moby Dick

The chapter talks of the carpenter as more of a thing than a person only good for fixing things and other than that is just there. The carpenter is an example of what whaling can do to a person. The carpenter is on the whaling ship brain washed only to do one thing in the aid of catching whales to the point where thats all he does and doesn't live anything else. (this chapter was above my head)

Chapter 106: Moby Dick

In this chapter Ishmeal tells about Ahab falling off of his whale bone leg and wounding him near the groin. This is very ironic, considering that Ahabs leg was taken from him by a whale, and then when he tries to use a whale to fix his leg, it "bites" him back. The motif of the whale eluding or getting revenge of the whaler by sinking, wounding, or destroying a boat appears again.

Chapter 105: Moby Dick

Ishmael explains that the whale has been around since the dinosaurs and has lasted through hundreds of years of hunting. The whale has more room to live in that twice the land and if it were to flood again, like in the biblical matter, every animal would die but the whale. The idea of being older than all others but basically untouchable in the idea of extinction gives the whale another sense of power.

Chapter 104: Moby Dick

..."not an inhabitable hand's breadth of land was visible. Then he whole world was the whale's;"

The sentence makes it sound as though the whale is the creator much like the Native story of Raven and before Raven got the sun there was nothing. Once again the whale is made out to be of a god-like creature so much that even churches are built out of there bones not just because of their strength but because their "holy".

Chapter 103: Moby Dick

About half into the chapter Ishmael realizes that you cannot "decipher" a whale merely form his skeleton because you are missing the blubber, the skin, and everything else that would have rotted away. Considering the gigantic size of a whale, he claims the largest of about ninety tons, that it is impossible to study one falling short of taking months to drag one on to land and maybe hitting the tide right get in on dry land. This gives the whale another feeling of god-like stature because nobody really knows about it.

Chapter 102: Moby Dick

Ishmael talks of his visit with Tranque who has made an alter out of giant whale skeleton. The people view this skeleton as their god and when Ishmael tries to measure it he is told that "you cannot measure god." I find this very ironic because not only do the whalers, mostly Ahab, worship whales like gods, but they are unable to measure Moby Dick because they cannot measure, or capture, Moby Dick you is the main god they wish to.

Chapter 101: Moby Dick

The motif of whaling as a religion come up again. Ishmael claims the the nantucketers were the first of the whaling kind and that they are the best because of this and therefore greater than everybody else. Much like religion if your religion came before others it is normally viewed as a better or at least more popular religion.

Chapter 100: Moby Dick

Ahab finally finds somebody who has came across the white whale. This chapter serves as a foreshadow that Moby Dick, is real, and will be appearing soon. The chapter also shows just how dangerous Moby Dick is. So dangerous that the captain of the other boat doesn't bother to chase after him again, however Ahab is a foil of this character and is seeking the whale for his revenge.

Chapter 99: Moby Dick

"here's teh battering-ram, Capricornus, or the Goat: full tilt, he comes rushing and headlong we are tossed....and to wind up with Pisces, or the Fishes, we sleep"
Ishmael talks about he gold coin and compares it to many mythical and legendary animals and star constellations. Moby Dick is not drawn in the sky but i think the doubloon is like his constellation. Much like the great pyramids when they come in line some of the men think that they can catch the whale when the symbols on the doubloon line up with the sun.

Chapter 98: Moby Dick

"and, foolish as i am, taught thee, a green simple boy, how to splice a rope"
In this chapter Ishmael makes whaling sound repetiative and almost boring. However when the crew mates hear, "there she blows" it is like all of it has become worth it a thousand times again. So much that anybody even a green simple boy can become addicted to whaling just by the littlest taste.

Chapter 97: Moby Dick

The chapter describes how most sailors are always in darkness because of the lack of oil on board. On the whaler's ship the boat is glowing like a temple. Once again, the whalers submerse themselves in what they do and what they love. Even when they are sleeping they let there lamps go and all have personal collections of lamps. These men are completely devoted to whaling, however it is what they know and love.

Chapter 96: Moby Dick

Ishmael explains what the try-works are a place where the blubber is boiled down. When Ishmael is steering the boat he gets caught up in looking at the "hellish" fires of the pots. He then almost allows the boat to turn wrong and possibly capsizing it. There is a common motif that almost everything that has to do with a whale is wrapped around some religion or curse. All these things enforce the whale as being a great power.

Chapter 95: Moby Dick

The chapter is titled "The Cassock", which is a full length robe worn by priests and others in a church. In this chapter the man wearing the cassock is slicing thin pieces of blubber to boil down to oil. Once again the harvesting of a whale is compared to a religious tradition/ceremony; Melville brings it out by the person cutting it need to do it very thinly so that it can be of a higher and greater quality/amount.

Chapter 94: Moby Dick

"I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti."

Ishmael claims that at one point in everybody's life they will shift there main focus on something that makes them extremely happy be it his wife, dog, or cheese. When Ishmael get his hands on some spermaceti he realized that it is indeed awesome and he knows he wants to be a whaler. What is it about these whales that entangles the mens lives who chase them.

Chapter 93: Moby Dick

"...will then be sen what like abandonment befell myself." This chapter serves as a foreshadow of Ishmael being thrown from a boat and drifting around. "mark how closely they hug their ship and only coast along her sides" The chapter makes the boat seem like part of the man overboard a metaphor for without the boat and without whaling the man "drifts" off from purpose.

Chapter 92: Moby Dick

Ishmael tells us that ambergris is actually used for perfume. Ironically whales are thought to be very bad smelling especially those of the sort they found the ambergris in. However Ishmael compares a fluking whale to giving off the same smell as beautiful woman. This comparison is very appropriate because Ishmael and the rest of the crew have given up their land life and woman for whales, at least they smell nice.

Chapter 91: Moby Dick

The Pequod comes across The Rose Bud which has found a few dead rotten whales that smell very bad. This is an irony because roses often smell quit nice. The Pequod then tricks the ship out of there whales and find some ambergris within it. Another thing that shows how valuable whales are, even from a rotten dead whale you can get a valuable substance.

Ambergris is basically the snot of a whale that is made to get rid of hard or sharp things out of the stomach such as squid beaks. When whales cough it up it can be heard from miles away and then can float for years being cleansed and polished by the sun. People find it on the shore and use it in perfumes. It is roughy 10,000 dollars a pound.

Chapter 90: Moby Dick

The chapter explains how whalers of England have to give the head of the whales they kill to the kind and the tail to the queen. Besides being another downgrade for woman because the queen gets the less valuable end it also plays into the idea of whaling being its own society. Like all other cultures/religions it is at one time shut down and kept from making a profit or developing.

(having a really hard time finding meaning in this chapter)(and some others)

Chapter 89: Moby Dick

Ishmael tells us the law of how whales are claimed. He states the if its tethered to the boat its theirs and if its floating around its free game. Metaphorically everything can be claimed in this sort of manner as long as somebody has a way of showing it, wether its a whale, or an island.

Chapter 88: Moby Dick

If you were to look at this chapter from the view of the Queer Theory many females would be very mad. Like most of the wilderness animals the whale partake to the same motif that males fight for the right of woman. Ishmael reefers to the herds of whales as schools because the young whales learn in them which I believe is a foreshadow that there will always be whales as deadly as Moby Dick because Dick is always teaching his ways.

Chapter 87: Moby Dick

pg359

"The lake, as i have hinted, was to a considerable depth exceedingly transparent: and as human infants while suckling will calmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as if leading two different lives at the time; and while yet drawing immortal nourishment, be still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly reminiscence."

Ishmael looks into the "lake" like its another world and in a sense it is. The baby suckling and living to lives is a metaphor for the whalers. However there suckling is whale hunting, they are living there but there purpose or "nourishment" is hunting whales.

Chapter 86: Moby Dick

This chapter is dedicated to describing the whales tale and its purposes. The main purpose, besides propulsion, is to strike small boats down being a foreshadow and an example of what has already happened. The Tail is described to an elephants trunk giving the idea that the tale is as a delicate and graceful instrument as the trunk. Near the end of the chapter Ishmael says that the whale only shows his tail and back but we never see his face. He also mentions that when the whale dives they seem to be pointing to the heavens. Could this be an idea of god? We only see glimpses but never the whole thing.

Chapter 85: Moby Dick

The chapter is dedicated to the breathing pattern of the whale and what the spout is made of. The breathing pattern is a foreshadow for it explains that a whale need a certain number of breaths before it will go down for an extended period of time thus being a way of capturing the whale before it goes down. The spout seems to represent the unknown about the whale, such as the hieroglyphics of its brow.

Chapter 84: Moby Dick

pg341
"By great exertion, Tashtego at last succeeded in planting one iron; but the stricken whale, without at all sounding, still continued his horizontal flight, with added fleetness"

Once again the mighty beast pulls a boat full of men and equipment steadily through the sea even with a harpoon in its side. This explains why whalers consider themselves unequal to other men and why the whales have been so glorified. Though the motif of the whale being able to get away will most likely come into play again, considering its already impressive try at running.

Chapter 83: Moby DIck

This chapter details the possibilities of how Jonah might have survived within a whale and that possibly the whale wasn't alive at all. However I think that Melville chooses to demean the idea of Jonah within a dead carcass by the previous events in the book. First when Tashtego almost dies from being in a whale not only from suffocation but from sinking to the bottom; then when the large whale sinks. Throughout the book the miracles or legends of a whale have been very impressive and the idea of Jonah hiding within a dead whale does not fit the theme.

Chapter 82: Moby Dick

pg 338
Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishoo! there's a member-roll for you. These "big" names are compared with the handling of whales much like a man would handle a horse. However when a name like Hercules is involved, it lends the whale to be much more impressive, you can see that taming these whales is as great as feet as slaying a dragon. And possibly mistaken for a dragon.

Chaper 81: Moby Dick

pg 333

"But still more curious was the facto of a lance-head of stone being found in him, not far from the buried iron, the flesh perfectly firm about it."

Being compared to hieroglyphics seems more appropriate not considering how old the whale must be to be harpooned by a stone lance. The whales seem to become legends after living for so long and become greater at escaping. Even after the wounded whale was captured it sunk out of sight before the crew could collect its bounty. You can bet that Moby Dick has been around since the stone age as well.

Chapter 80: Moby Dick

pg 325

"I should call this high hump the organ of firmness or indomitableness in the Sperm Whale.

I feel that in order to make up for the lack of brain within the whale out of respect for it Ishmael turns to look at the importance of the hump and backbone. Ishmael talks of the impressiveness of the spine and that the hump is over the largest part of the spine. This makes sense however for when people think of whales they think of the hump and tail for that is all they see. Perhaps this is why people say a man without nerve has a backbone or not.

Chapter 79: Moby Dick

pg 323

"how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful chaldee of the sperm whale's brow"

Melville puts a sort of fabled legend to the whale by comparing its prow to hieroglyphics. Is this why the men are obsessed with whaling. Not because of the money in it but for the glory of discovering the meaning of the whale. Moby Dick is captain Ahabs hieroglyphs.

Chapter 78: Moby Dick

pg 318

"Tashtego,...and with a horribly oily gurgling, went clean out of sight."

The whale has previously been described as a intelligent creature and seems to have a sort of taboo on it when it comes to those who threaten it. When Tashtego is getting the spermaceti he falls into the head or, the "brain" of the whale. Not only do whales take ships out but they have a sort of "technique" if you will in doing so.

Chapter 77: Moby Dick

The chapter describes the "Heidelburgh Tun", or the valuable spermaceti that lies within the head of the whale. The oil when exposed to air forms beautiful crystalline shoots. This makes the death of a whale seem more beautiful than when it is alive. Ishmael then goes to say, "almost fatal operation whereby the sperm whale's great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped, as if the whale is still dangerous after death. Could this be the dread goddess's veil that was mentioned earlier.

Chapter 76: Moby Dick

"The Battering Ram" The chapter explains exactly what it is called. Ishmael gives a foreshadow of the head of the whale being a battering ram, "an almost vertically plane to the water." being a foreshadow because we know that eventually Moby Dick will be smashing into the hull of the Pequod. However also an Irony because the whalers best prize comes from the precious oil inside this ram sometimes exceeding 500 gallons of oil. The oil that they live by is the oil that they are killed by.Ishmael then goes to ask, "what befell the weakling youth lifting the dread goddess's veil at sais?" This seems as a threat to anybody who tries to lift the veil, in the terms of whaling however, the veil is Moby Dicks life.

Chapter 75: Moby Dick

The chapter compares the right whale to many powerful and large things such a Roman Chariot, a bassviol and its sound board, and a space large enough for the little old lady who lived in a show and all her children. This gives the whale a sense of power being compared to a roman chariot as if it a great warrior, but also intelligent or wise from the bassviol. Much like you would expect an ancient warrior to be smart in the tactics of battle. Describing of the whale as a house also should be noted as an allusion to the bible story Jonah and The Whale.

Chapter 74: Moby Dick

This chapters main subject is the placement of the eyes upon the Sperm Whales head. "The position of the whales eyes correspond to that of a mans ears." This is a foreshadow as it explains that the whale is unable to see directly in front of itself, leading it to crashing into boats on accident or most likely in Moby Dick's case, not as accurately as it hoped. Later in the chapter Ishmael makes them sound very intelligent explaining that they must be able to view and process  two individual images simotaniously giving that they cant form one image because of the placement of their eyes. 

Moby Dick Paper, Queer Theory

Mark and Laura werent interested in Judging and will be gone, Blain said he would but he will also be gone but is thinking of other people who might be interested.

Moby Dick pg40

"Ah, poor hay-seed! How bitterly will burst those strap in the first howling gale.."
The people of whaling believe that there is no other work as hard as whaling itself. This is much like religion where people believe that their religion is correct and better than others. Later in the chapter is goes to say that whaling towns are filled with beautiful and plentiful flower and woman as if a heaven for all whaling town are better than normal towns.

Moby DIck pg21

"...one was sickle shaped..."
Gives the impression that whaling is surrounded by death and that the harpooners are beast like men almost immortal.