Moby+Dick

-** Story begins with Ishmael, the narrator, announcing intent to sail aboard a whaling vessel. - Main Conflict involves Captain Ahab and the crew trying to kill Moby Dick, a white sperm whale. -nails a dubloonn to the mast as an incentive for capturing and/or killing Moby Dick -Pequod comes across many other ships with stories about Moby Dick -
 * Key Plot Events

-** Ishmael - narrator in the story -Moby Dick - white sperm whale for which the book is named -Ahab - captain of the Pequod
 * Key Characters

-** Set in the 1830s and 1840s aboard the whaling ship called the Pequod
 * Setting

-The //Pequod// -symbolizes doom because of the ship's inevitable sinking - Moby Dick -symbolizes humankind’s inability to understand the world because he never comprehends why Ahab and the crew of the Pequod are after him -Queequeg’s coffin -symbolizes both life and death
 * Symbols**


 * Images

Themes -** Explotation nature of whaling industry - Fate - The idea of fate and destiny is thoroughly discussed in the novel. Most of the sailors on the ship believe in prophecies and take them at full value no questions asked. Some on the ship even claim to be able to know of the future. The sailors belief in fate is often abused and Captain Ahab himself uses his sailors belief in fate to convince them that it is their fate to find Moby Dick.
 * Commentary on the racial structure of whaling ships as well as the semi-class structure.
 * Draw parallels between whaling and things such as gold mining and buffalo hunting.


 * Structural Elements.**