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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. Given the irony of the coffin turned life buoy, what is the feeling of foreshadowing?

2. What happens to Ahab's hat as he perches atop the mast?

3. What do they find in the corpse of the blind and crippled whale?

4. What is the mood on the Pequod?

5. What does Ishmael believe about the survival of whales as a species?

Short Essay Questions

1. What further insult does Ahab act out after meeting the Delight?

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

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

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

5. How is Ahab killed?

6. Relate the sad story of Pip.

7. Why does Ahab transfer onto the Samuel Enderby to hear its captain's story?

8. What is Ishmael trying to ascertain as he ponders fossil remains of whales he has read about?

9. What is the ominous message from the whaling ship Delight?

10. What contest occurs between the Pequod and a German whaling ship?

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 why Ishmael's idea that the whale could never become extinct was just the thing that has almost made the whale disappear. Explain how man's use of natural resources has done a great deal of damage to species and to the planet.

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 the hard life of whalers. Mention the three year expeditions required to fill the ship with valuable whale oil. Discuss the weather conditions that make the trip more dangerous. Detail the need to go out in small boats to get near enough to the whales to harpoon them.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 733 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample