Moby Dick
Type of Work:
Allegorical novel
Setting
The high Seas; early nineteenth century
Principal Characters
Ishmael, a teacher-seaman (and narrator)
Queequeg, a hardened and savage harpooner
Ahab, captain of the Pequod
Starbuck and Stubb, Ahabs first and second mates
Fedallah, Captain Ahabs Parsee servant and seer
Story Overview
A Massachusetts schoolmaster, Ishmael chose to give up the comfort and security of his classroom and fulfill his romantic desire to go to sea. Leaving Manhatto, he traveled to the seaport town of New Bedford to seek out work on a whaler.
Ishmaels first night in New Bedford was spent in the crusty Spouter Inn near the water_ front. There he found the only bed available which, by necessity, he consented to share with an unknown harpooner. His roommate turned out to be a bizarre fellow indeed, a hardened South-sea islander whose body was covered with tattoos. But after Ishmaels initial fear had subsided, he found this “strange bedfellow,” Queequeg, to be quite friendly. The huge man offered to share his small fortune and an embalmed human head with Ishmael. “At first I knew not what to make of this,” Ishmael said, “but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me. I remembered a story of a white
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