1.
1. Explain the encounter with the Rosebud. Discuss the various ironies of the situation,
and discuss the way in which the outcome is another example of the motif of
duality.
2. What is ambergris and what does it have to do
with Alexander the Great?
3. Discuss the following lines (begin by
explaining the situation to which they refer):
“He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and
therefore, his shipmates called him mad.
So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense…”
4. Describe the scene of “The Try-Works.” Include similes and metaphors.
5. Summarize the process described in “Stowing
Down and Cleaning Up.” Incorporate
Ishmael’s remarks about “life” at the end of the chapter.
6. Contrast the four different views of “The
Doubloon.” Explain, “Here’s the ship’s
navel.”
7. Explain the situation that occurs in the gam with the Samuel Enderby. Contrast the attitudes and philosophies of
the two captains; comment on the one-armed commander as a foil to Ahab.
8. Describe the scene Ishmael recalls in “A
Bower in the Arsacides.” Discuss the poetic uses of language;
speculate on the reason Ishmael uses elevated, poetic language for this
particular chapter.
9. List some of the paradoxical dualities
mentioned by Ishmael in these chapters.
10. What is the magnitude of the whale? Will he diminish?
11. Explain the confrontation between Starbuck
and Ahab. What is revealed about
Starbuck? About Ahab?
12. The coffin motif returns: explain the ambiguity of Queequeg’s
coffin.
13. “The Pacific” gives us more poetic language
to emphasize the monomania of Ahab’s purpose.
Explain what is going on in this chapter.
14. Describe the blacksmith and discuss the ways
in which he is similar to Ahab.
15. The motif of religious ritual returns with
the baptism of the harpoon. Explain.
16. Another motif: the loom and weaving. Explain these lines and relate them to other
references to weaving: "But the mingled, mingling threads of life are
woven by warp and woof: calms crossed by storms, a storm for every calm"
(548).
17. What is the attitude of the happy Bachelor
to the white whale?
2. Vocabulary:
1. Chiasmus: A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures: “Each
throat/ Was parched, and glazed each eye”(Coleridge).
2. Chortle: A snorting, joyful laugh or chuckle.
3. Coccyx: A small triangular bone at the base of the
spinal column (also called tailbone).
4.
Crescendo: A gradual increase,
especially in the volume or intensity of sound in a passage.
5.
Cruciverbalist:
A
person who constructs crossword puzzles.
6.
Desultory: Having no set plan;
haphazard or random..
7.
Detritus: Disintegrated or eroded
matter; debris.
8.
Didgeridoo: A musical instrument of
9.
Ebullient: Zestfully enthusiastic;
bubbling.
10.
Echelon: A formation of troops in
which each unit is positioned successively to the left or right of the rear
unit.