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Moby Dick Summary



Moby-Dick Chapter The Jeroboam’s Story Summary & Analysis | LitCharts
The narrator is an observant young man from Manhattan, perhaps even as young as Melville was twenty-one when he first sailed as a crew member on the American whaler Acushnet. Ishmael tells us that he often seeks a sea voyage when he gets to feeling glum. Four times he has sailed in the merchant service so he may well be in his mid-twenties or older. This time he has a yearning for a voyage on a whaling ship.


Every Character in Moby Dick
This observant young man from Manhattan has been to sea four times in the merchant service but yearns for a whaling adventure. On a cold, gloomy night in December, he arrives at the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and agrees to share a bed with a stranger. Both men are alarmed when the bunkmate, a heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, returns late and discovers Ishmael beneath his covers.



The novel is named after Moby Dick because he is the center of Ahab's obsession and a key figure in his own right. The White Whale's appearance is unique. He is an exceptionally large sperm whale with a snow-white head, wrinkled brow, crooked jaw, and an especially bushy spout. His hump is also white and shaped like a pyramid; the rest of his body is marbled with white.