July 8, 2019 - Chapter Fifty-four (pp. 254-260)


As the story of the Town-Ho draws to a close, lest we wonder what the point is of including this (rather lengthy) story within Moby Dick, the white whale makes his appearance, taking the life of Radney, the captain, even as the two antagonists of the story cooperate to try to kill him. Obviously, Melville is once again trading in foreshadowing, although to precisely what end remains unclear. On the one hand, the fate of Ahab is being strongly hinted at in the episode. On the other hand, while there is tension between Ahab and one of his mates, it does not seem (at this point) to be pointing in the direction of mutiny, particularly since Starbuck, the chief mate, does not seem to be unhappy at all.

The final thing to note is that Ishmael closes the story by claiming that he actually met Steelkilt and heard the story from him. Whether this is true is of course impossible to know, but given the extremely hearsay nature of the story, it isn’t likely. Thus, the whole chapter (and thus the whole novel – or at least the Ishmael-narrated chapters) is flung into unreliable narrator territory – the first indication that we might be dealing with such a convention here.

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