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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 is the irony of the coffin?

2. How does Ahab react to the intrusion by Starbuck?

3. What makes Starbuck come and talk to Ahab.

4. Which of the characters keep watch on both the crew and the ocean?

5. What is the change in Stubb?

Short Essay Questions

1. Relate the sad story of Pip.

2. Describe the madness of Ahab that loses his humanity.

3. Describe Ishmael's arguments against the man who doubts the Bible.

4. What is so interesting about the perceptions of the Spanish doubloon nailed to the mast?

5. Explain how Stubb uses his sense of humor to trick a French whaling ship into leaving a dead whale.

6. What is happening to Queequeg's coffin?

7. What happens when Tashtego accidentally falls into the oil-filled head of the whale?

8. What is foreshadowed by a dream on Ahab's whaling boat?

9. Why does the encounter with the Bachelor irritate Ahab?

10. How is Ahab killed?

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 the literary use of personification. Begin with how Ahab assigns human characteristics to Moby Dick, believing that the whale is a mortal enemy, conscious of a vendetta against him. Then go to children's stories where animal characters think and talk like humans. Discuss personification as a device to explain relationships between humans and animals.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages comparing the character Bildad in MOBY DICK to the Bildad in the book of Job who God said darkened counsel without knowledge. Point out dialog of Bildad that shows his limited understanding of the real world.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on the mystery of the sea. Begin with the mysterious things about the sea that Melville presents in the novel. Move into the present where there are still many things we do not know about the sea. Explain why the sea is so difficult to understand including its size, its atmospheric pressure, and its eco-systems.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 780 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample