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Moby Dick........

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you thought I was big so yeah we're gonna be analyzing this 635 page behemoth calm [Moby Dick discussing book]

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down breathe that's one little chapter yes chapter 135 that's what we're doing

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here nothing else yep and you heard me correctly there are a hundred

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thirty-five chapters in this thing and yes I'm asking you to skip to the

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very end in the books oh uh spoiler alert but before you head

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into open water let's take a little look at the books author Mr. Herman Melville [Herman appears]

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New York 1819 well baby Herman comes into the world

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Melville's mother Maria was a super religious woman and she drilled the [Maria sitting in a church]

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Bible into her son's brain from an early age his dad Allen wasn't around for too

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long after driving the family into bankruptcy the senior Melville man died [Allan headstone appears at graveyard]

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leaving his loved ones both penniless and Allen --less when Herman was 20 he

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began his love affair with the sea he'd go on voyages for months at a time [Herman on a ship at sea]

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including a stint on a whaling ship only got off the ship to live on a French

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Polynesian island for a while where he claims to have been captured by a tribe

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of cannibals obviously they didn't eat him guess they were turned off by the axe

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body spray anyway Melville used those early life

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experiences as inspiration to write his first two novels Typee and Omoo which

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started his writing career but his next few books were not well received and

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when Moby Dick came out in 1851 it flopped even Melville's pal Nathaniel

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Hawthorne wasn't a fan and the book was dedicated to him ouch watch out for

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errant harpoons there Nathaniel... it was downhill from there for Melville [harpoon lands in Nathaniels leg]

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he started drinking two of his sons died and wasn't exactly finding his way

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into Oprah's Book Club well he officially died in 1891 and never got to

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see people finally come around on Moby Dick which is today considered an

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American classic it took a while for everyone to realize that the book wasn't [Boy reading Moby Dick in library]

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just a long weird story about a whale but a meditation on life, religion,

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obsession, money, friendship, cruelty and just about everything else that makes

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the world go round okay so Moby Dick what's this thing [Whale in the ocean]

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about well here's quick summary of the plot the story is told from the point of

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view of Ishmael a sailor he and his new best bud Queequeg sign up for a whaling

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voyage onboard a ship called the Pequod there Ishmael meets the mates Stubb

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Flask and Starbuck yeah they really did name the coffee place after him well he [Ishmaels friends on the ship]

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drank a lot of mocha frappuccinos on the Pequod apparently well the commander of

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the ship is named Captain Ahab he's quiet he's reclusive he has a peg leg

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yeah fascinating guy Ishmael finds out that Ahab's leg was taken by a great

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white whale aka an albino sperm whale and okay enough of the snickering I'm a [Students laughing in class]

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sperm whale and proud of it and the captain is vowed to hunt down and kill

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me it was kind of like Captain Hook's obsession with crocodile, who took

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his hand well boy it's hard to be a captain and keep all your appendages for

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more than a year the crew sails around the world until finally they encounter a [Ship encounters sperm whale]

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Habs nemesis it's an unhappy reunion for Ahab though, yours truly attacks the

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Pequod and down she goes Ahab from a smaller whaling boat there [Ahab holding a harpoon]

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was a harpoon in a desperate attempt to finally defeat his foe aka me but

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instead he catches himself round the neck with the rope and is strangled to

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death well Ishmael is the only survivor which

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is how he's able to tell the tale in the first place okay now to just read a few

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of Melville's many many words and just quick note here people didn't look at

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650 page books back in Melville's day the way they do today back then there

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was no Hulu no PlayStation a massive book just meant there was more to read [Man reading a book]

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awesome and they felt that way even when they were wading through a hundred

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fifty pages of whaling history and terminology alright time to check out

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chapter 135 sink your teeth into this thing like it's the leg of an obnoxious

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sea captain......... all right tough read, right? well if it feels a little like you're

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reading the Bible there's a reason for it as I mentioned Melville's mom didn't [Maria appears in Melville's bedroom]

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read him Bernstein bears and Curious George when he was a kid instead they

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were making their way through the Old Testament and Moby Dick doesn't just

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call to mind the Bible's writing style it's also packed to the gills pun

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intended there with biblical references and allusions in other words numerous

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biblical characters and events get shoutouts throughout the book and

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there's also a lot of stuff that represents certain elements from the [Moby Dick swims to the bible]

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Bible go over them in a sec but first let's look at some of the chapters

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motifs ie strong recurring or dominant ideas in a piece of writing first up

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revenge well this one might seem kind of obvious to you - after all the entire plot

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of Moby Dick is about revenge if a humongous sea dwelling mammal with a bad [Captain Ahab hanging off a ship]

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attitude ripped off your leg you kind of want to get back at him wouldn't you? well

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Captain Ahab is the personification of vengeance he's blind to everything else

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his whaling boat is surrounded by sharks and doesn't matter gotta get the whale [Sharks circle boat and Ahab throws harpoon]

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the Pequod sinking doesn't matter got to get the whale I have a pressing need to

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drop the kids off at preschool and doesn't matter got to get the whale well

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this guy's become obsessed he has only one thing on his mind and it's not the

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one thing most men usually have on their mind but as chapter progresses it [Ahab in bed with woman and throws a harpoon]

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appears there's someone else out for revenge.... me I may have taken the

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guy's leg eons ago but it was nothing personal but ever since then Ahab's been

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tracking me, hurlin' harpoons at me and it's gotten old so finally I snap start

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fighting back and I'm successful in my act of vengeance... I top all the entire Pequod [Moby Dick slams into Pequod and ship splits in half]

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killing all but one of the men on board and get Ahab to actually strangle

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himself to death and yes revenge is a dish best served cold, ice cold...

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what about the motif of man and the natural world hmm

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well yeah there's man and there's the natural world me or at least what I

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represent throughout the book Ahab isn't just

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taking on the whale he's taking on the entire sea by the time he gets you in [Ahab with a harpoon out at sea]

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this final chapter he's been through storms leaking ships whale attacks

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you name it when he takes his final stand against his white whale, he's

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kinda on his last leg literally well the journey and all of his various

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trials and tribulations have taken a toll on both his body and on his mind [Ahab screams]

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which brings us to the next motif if there's one thing Ahab has no shortage

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of it's madness the guy has gone full-on Looney Tunes when he's in his whaling

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boat his oars being eaten by sharks and his outlook looking not good his crew [Shark eats an oar]

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informed him that the whale has turned and stopped pursuing them meaning that

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Ahab can live to fight another day but rather than doing the sensible thing

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and getting back onto the ship the captain is bound and determined to

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finish this thing well one of them is going down, either the five hundred

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thousand pound mass of angry muscle or the withered old one-legged sea captain

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gee close call well unfortunately for him there is no David in this Goliath [Hand punches David]

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story I win, Ahab dies but how mad is Ahab in his final moments well check out

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this line here's food for thought had Ahab time to think but Ahab never thinks

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he only feels feels feels that's tingling enough for mortal man

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first of all dude is talking about himself in third person granted a few of

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the other guys do it too but like just be Melville stylistic choice there it's

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still a little bonkers he repeats the word feels three times if he'd said just

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once well we might think he's in possession of his faculties but the [Ahab greets Starbuck on boat]

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repetition here makes us wonder if he's all there and finally he admits he isn't

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acting logically but feeding off his emotion doing what his gut is telling

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him to do well since his life is on the line here not a good idea and yet one

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more piece of evidence to support the idea that he's lost his marbles alright

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moving on well how about religion no sense of anyone in church here no

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mentions of Jesus so no religion right very wrong well [Pictures of church and Jesus appear]

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since I've been trying to hammer it home like my hammer head friend over here

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that Melville is gung ho when it comes to religion it should be no surprise

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that this chapter along with the other 134 are chock-full of Bible stuff seven [Priest appears in front of audience]

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times in this chapter God is mentioned heaven five times but it isn't the

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direct references to biblical terms that really shows Melville's religious fervor [Melville writing novel]

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there are also a ton of figurative ie not literal phrasings that hint at or

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draw attention to passages from the Bible like take a look at the second to

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last paragraph Tashtego remember in the crew is trying

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to nail one final flag to the masthead as the ship sinks he must really be [Tashtego nailing flag to masthead]

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going for that ship mate of the month award

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anyway as he's hammering a bird the bird of heaven as Melville puts it, gets in the

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way and gets impaled to the masthead the bird goes down with ship which

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like Satan would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven

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along with her bird being nailed to a piece of wood any chance that could be a

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reference to Jesus and the crucifixion yeah well there's even a mention in the [Jesus being nailed to the crucifix]

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Bible specifically about a bird being killed namely Leviticus 14 where Moses

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is commanded by God to sacrifice one but I'm pretty sure Melville was taking the

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Jesus angle but wood and nails thing makes it pretty obvious especially since

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Satan is dragging down a living part of heaven well there's also plenty of talk

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about the crew having tracked the whale for three days prior to the climactic

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scene while following the crucifixion Jesus was entombed for three days and [People carrying Jesus' body]

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nights not to mention that the number three simply has a ton of biblical

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significance there were three wise men God is three persons aka the Holy

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Trinity three people witnessed Jesus glory on the Mount

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give more examples about three seems appropriate here so yeah without even

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digging too deeply the words in Moby Dick's start to reveal a lot about

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Melville and the depths of his spiritual devotion all right next question we know [Melville sitting in church]

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these motifs can be found in the books final chapter but how

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prevalent are they in the rest of the novel only one way to find out right try

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another chapter on for size I recommend chapter 41 it's a good one

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once again look for the motifs of a revenge, man in the natural world, madness

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and religion oh it's not that tough an assignment... quit your whaling [Moby Dick discussing assignment]

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