August 29, 2019 - Chapter One Hundred Thirty-four (pp. 547-551)


On the second day of the hunt, Ahab and the other crew men are able to sink three harpoons into the white whale but still don’t take him out. Instead, Moby Dick destroys Ahab’s boat, giving us a clear sense that this dispute is personal not just for Ahab. It does raise the question of how well whale intelligence was understood at the time the novel was written and published. We know today how smart sea mammals are – dolphins are purportedly the smartest, but whales are not considered to be slouches by any sense. Is Melville personifying the whale to some extent, or is he merely recognizing the species’ inherent intelligence?

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