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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ishmael think is more remarkable than the whale's size and color?

2. What is the subject matter of the sermon in the chapel?

3. Who is Charity and what is her function regarding the Pequod?

4. What is the name of the inn where Ishmael stays while waiting to go to Nantucket?

5. What has Ahab's vengeance done to him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the curious rumor about other fish and Moby Dick.

2. Why is the story of Radney and Steelkilt important to the story?

3. What is the function of Charity, Bildad's sister, in the preparations for the Pequod's journey?

4. At what point does Ishmael go into a discussion about whales in general.

5. Detail the problems of holding a whale overnight tied to the side of the ship.

6. How does Ishmael happen to share a bed with a tattooed headhunter?

7. Under what circumstances do Peleg and Bildad leave the Pequod?

8. Explain the startling thing that Ishmael learns about his friend, Queequeg.

9. Describe the behavior of the mates dining in the captain's cabin as they torment the cook who serves their meal.

10. What is the surprise the men of the Pequod get when they spot their first whale and begin to lower the boats?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on understanding other cultures. Begin with Ishmael's initial fear of Queequeg. Note how Queequeg did not seem so strange after Ishmael sees many other ethnic people on the streets of New Bedford. Discuss how Queequeg begins to see Ishmael as his brother. Finish with how religious prejudice like Bildad's tends to resist inter-cultural understanding.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on life in a coastal town. Use the differences Ishmael notices between how people live in New Bedford and Nantucket from the way people live inland. Give your opinion as to what it is about coastal people that make them different from other communities. If you have personal experience with a coastal town, work those into your essay.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on Melville as a novelist. Mention the parts of Moby Dick that you found the most interesting. Discuss also some of the drier parts of the novel that tend to interrupt the flow of the story. Give your opinion about his use of language to paint a picture of life on a whaling ship.

(see the answer keys)

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