1. Ahab constantly uses the sun as a timekeeper and looks to it as some sort of spiritual power that governs his voyage. Right before his death, Ahab states, “I turn my body from the sun” (ch. 135). What does this action signify? Has Ahab given up any hope of religious salvation by rejecting this emblem of faith?
2. Why would Melville describe the “captive” bird as the only “living part of heaven” that accompanies the Pequod’s descent into the deep (ch. 135)? Does this imply that all the whalers on the journey were bound for hell? What is the symbolism of the bird’s acting as the “helmet” of the ship? Could the bird be the saving grace that protects the whalers from damnation? How might the image of the Pequod and all her men sinking into the ocean relate to the sermon that states, “the whale…swallowed [Jonah] down to living gulfs of doom” (ch. 9). Jonah sank to the bottom of the ocean where he met God, so could Ahab and his crew actually be journeying to make the acquaintance of God?
3. What is the significance of Ishmael’s being saved by Queequeg’s mysterious coffin? Ishmael accepts the aid of the life-buoy without questioning its deeper meaning; is Melville using this action as a message that, although Ishmael stated that all things have meaning (in The Doubloon), the truths of life and death are far too transcendent for humans to even attempt to understand? Instead of always questioning, is Melville suggesting that an unexamined life is the safest, albeit unrewarding, way to live life?
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