The opening chapter of the novel instantly draws the attention and curiosity of the reader since the opening sentence, “Call me Ishmael” (Melville 3). It suggests that the narrator is not really named Ishmael, instead he asks the reader to call him by that name. This implements a great sense of excitement that pulls the reader to continue exploring the mind of this unknown person since all humans have a tendency to be drawn towards the mysterious. Herman Melville captures this perfectly when his protagonist, Ishmael proclaims: “I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote” (7), a phrase that resonates with the popularized word, wanderlust. Ishmael then begins a passionate discussion of the importance water has on his life and the lives of others though they
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This happened to Ishmael as well, he chooses to escape to sea whenever he finds himself “growing grim about the mouth,” especially when his “hypos get such an upper hand…that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent [him] from deliberately stepping into the street” (3). In both characters, the sea serves as an escape from the mental chaos the earthly world strains on them. The ocean serves as a medium from which a person meditates and transforms.
In Chapter 54, the trust readers had built on Ishmael is shaken by the reminder of the fact that he is a hidden man, as seen in the previous discussion, who through his storytelling and opinions has persuaded the reader into trusting him. At the end of Ishmael’s recount of the Town-Ho’s story the men he was with question his credibility; asking for a priest and a Bible he swears:
So help me Heaven, and on my honor, the story I have told ye, gentlemen, is in substance and its great items, true. I know it to be true; it happened on this ball; I trod the ship; I knew the crew; I have seen and talked with Steelkilt since the death of Radney. (Melville
This happened to Ishmael as well, he chooses to escape to sea whenever he finds himself “growing grim about the mouth,” especially when his “hypos get such an upper hand…that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent [him] from deliberately stepping into the street” (3). In both characters, the sea serves as an escape from the mental chaos the earthly world strains on them. The ocean serves as a medium from which a person meditates and transforms.
In Chapter 54, the trust readers had built on Ishmael is shaken by the reminder of the fact that he is a hidden man, as seen in the previous discussion, who through his storytelling and opinions has persuaded the reader into trusting him. At the end of Ishmael’s recount of the Town-Ho’s story the men he was with question his credibility; asking for a priest and a Bible he swears:
So help me Heaven, and on my honor, the story I have told ye, gentlemen, is in substance and its great items, true. I know it to be true; it happened on this ball; I trod the ship; I knew the crew; I have seen and talked with Steelkilt since the death of Radney. (Melville