In these chapters, Ishmael and Queequeg become very close. Ishmael 1st  sees Queequeg “hideously marred” then compares him George Washington. They become “a cozy, loving pair”  and have a great relationship. The people of the town are appalled by there because they seem so different. Ishmael’s narrative speaks frequently of prejudice focusing both racial and religious issues. Queequeg’s abstinence during his “Ramadan” ritual annoys Ishmael to remonstrate with him about the folly of religious “dyspepsia,” referring to the malnourishment that he believes results from fasting. These chapters are filled with foreshadowing, light and dark. Elijah, tells Ishmael and Queequeg that the Pequod is in danger. The ship is actually a symbol of death. Elijah’s refers to incidents of bad judgment to Ahab. Ahab is, “desperate moody, and savage,” inspires pity, and “a strange awe” in Ishmael. Ahab is a strange character having an intense obsession with the whale, in a way worshiping him. He's been injured from the white whale which has corrupted him. This issues seems that the conflict will only get bigger.

 
 
 
 
22-31

These chapters discuss the men on the ship. The ship is separated by color: the officers are white and the sailors are from the South Sea Islands, Gay Head, Africa, and other far corners of the globe. Starbuck has a harpooner Queequeg and Stubb has a harpooner who is Tashego . Flask represents the South. The Pequod depends on cooperation for success in catching whales and the men in the end are assessed according to their skill instead of there race. Melville shows the difference of the social classes aboard the Pequod. Ahab rules the ship. “Moody stricken Ahab [stands] before [his crew] with a crucifixion in his face”; he represents a force that will not be denied. Obedience is an importance to maintaining the discipline on the ship. These chapters illustrate Ishmael’s  style of narration. Some chapters like Chapter 29 , are read as scenes in a play, showing stage direction. Ishmael also narrates a lot of foreshadowing events. The events that happen are supposed to seem like the fulfillment of Ahab’s destiny and the consequence of his abnormal behavior. Ishmael makes his narrative to anticipate the reader what will happen next other than for the reader create the effect of surprise.

 
 
 
 
32- 40

This chapter, “Cetology” seems to be away for Ishmael to show off his knowledge. He uses the explanation of these books to try and explain the world.  Ahab’s desire to get the to see his intelligence; he looks for hidden realities beneath fact appearances. One of the puzzling questions presented by his soliloquy is whether God is against Ahab and looks to  strike out. Starting with chapter 35 the story begins to be told as if it was a play with stage directions and other devices used in plays. These elements greaten the reader’s awareness that the book is becoming more dramatic with the conflicts emerging between the characters and Ahab manipulating his crew to search for only Moby Dick. These chapters often copy Shakespeare's plays in there style, such as the cadences and rhythms.  Ahab and Starbuck are both given monologues in these chapters, each getting the chance to plead his case to the reader
 
 
 
 
41-47

These chapters contain very little action, focusing on just the meaning of the events already described. Ishmael tries very hard to ensure that the reader will not comprehend his story as a tall tale written to impress the gullible. He demonstrates that a specific whale can be recognized, become a legend, and even hunted. Ishmael wants his narrative to be taken literally and not as some “hideous and intolerable allegory.”
An ironic point in this seems to be that the events of the novel were not invented by an author in order to communicate a single meaning. The novel presents events that could happen and explores the different ways people such as Ahab, Ishmael, and the other sailors can interpret these same events. The movements of whales are hidden, and the whalemen’s struggles to piece together what they see resemble other people’s struggles to make meaning out of life.  Ishmael demonstrates that records of whale sightings form the subject of a captain’s practical knowledge, so that whales can be constantly hunted. The symbolic meaning of Moby Dick’s existence is a more complicated matter. The rumors carried on by the whale men about Moby Dick’s immortality seem to give a sense of fear. Ahab’s obsession with the whale is far more in-dept than the other sailors. He focuses all the evil in the world onto the White Whale.
 
 
 
 
48-54

Fedallah and his men appearing changes some things aboard the Pequod. Ishmael describes Fedallah as a “muffled mystery to the last.” In the beginning of the novel, Ishmael sees Fedallah and the others boarding the ship, and Elijah warns them, it seems as if the Pequod has been boarded by ghosts . Now Ishmael realizes that there real even though there still mysterious because of their alliance to Ahab. Throughout the narrative, its hard for the reader to differentiate the real from the supernatural. The constant reminder of fate is Ahab’s purposes as he manipulates the crew into making the hunt for the White Whale their destiny. Fate is enabling the sailors to set aside their fears during times of danger since they believe that what will happen to them has already been determined.  The phantom spout and the death of Radney in “The Town-Ho’s Story” all foreshadow a tragic end to the Pequod’ s quest. Ishmael's belief in a predetermined fate lets him appreciate the present, and he comes to consider each new day as a gift. Ahab views fate as a way to justify his own perverse actions. He uses the idea of fate to motivate his crew. Moby Dick will not find Ahab, Ahab has to find him. Fate is simply just an excuse for Ahab to get away with his madness
 
 
 
55-65

These chapters survey visual depictions of whales while at the same time question the accuracy of pictures. Ishmael questions whether it is possible to create an object that conveys the reality and the spirit of the whale and its hunters. The few engravings and paintings that Ishmael praises seem to be effective because they offer dramatic but not realistic scenes. The sea is a perfect model of human perception. As Ishmael writes in chapter 58 even when we examine ourselves, we see only surfaces of hidden truths. Ishmael discusses the world because he sees it as unfit although hes not aware of what lies beneath these surfaces. His narration in these chapters tends to begin with a discussion of something concrete like brit or the giant squid. Ishmael also offers the first of many digressions about whaling equipment and technique in these chapters. After describing the successful hunt of a whale, Ishmael goes back to talk about the crotch where a whale dart rests. His explanations about equipment make the novel more realistic, because of this the novel can occasionally be viewed as a documentary than as fiction.
 
 
 
 
66-73

This series of chapters matches the rational matters of whaling with a series of never-ending problems. The sharks that circle around the boat  release a sense of enforcement even after they are killed. Whale carcasses float to the ships. Ishmael says that mistakes said about the whales cannot be avoided and that comparison of them are the only means by which things can be described. Instead of assigning the whale to human characteristics, Ishmael takes features of the whale and presents them as possible models for human life. He admires the whale’s blubber which enables it to withstand its environment. According to Ishmael, the whale exists in a sort of perfection,and independence.
These chapters go back to the topic of male bonding and them being gay which was stated in the early stages of the relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael.
 
74-81

Ishmael tries to describe the whale heads accurately, he then makes a comparisons between the heads and schools of classical philosophy. Phrenology and physiognomy were popular in the nineteenth century.  Physiognomy was used in studying criminal behavior and the justification of discrimination against the poor individuals. Phrenology was used to justify racial inequality. Ishmael continuously goes deeper within the whale from the outside of the skin to the blubber. He moves in talking about the skull then jumps to the discussion of the brain. Ishamel continuing to move inwards is an attempt to get the inner meaning which would be referring the Ahab's statement that he must “strike through the mask." Ishmael says that phrenology and physiognomy,are different  forms of reading, one reads skulls and faces. The assortment of readings of the whale’s head, each based on a different set of principles .
 
 
 
82-92

The story of Jonah is the subject of Father Mapple’s sermon in Chapter 9 , and Mapple himself might be regarded as the main reader. His imagination clinches upon what is important in a story without getting caught up and focused on in-dept details. In Chapter 82 , Ishmael is guilty from when he ignores the totality of the careers of Hercules, St. George, and others to argue that they are whale men. The imagery in this section has a double meaning which are death and birth. They are connected as the blood of the hurt whales mingles with the milk that the calves are drinking when the “Grand Armada” of whales is attacked. When the Pequod chases the whales, it also chased by pirates, illustrating that ocean life is a series of revolving events showing us the story from a more abstract perspective. This correlation of parts also recommends some alikeness between the sailors on the ship and the whales. In the chapter on “Schools and Schoolmasters,” Ishmael gives the whale an array of human qualities.
 
 
 
 
92-101

The chapters in this section present a strange variety of materials. This section discusses the stories of  Pip and Captain Boomer, each of them both have a traumatic experience at sea and responds to that trauma in their own way. The chapters in which Ishmael describes the of the whale’s body contribute to the reader’s factual understanding of the ship’s activities and purpose; more important, however, these activities provide the material upon which Ishmael exercises his imaginative and speculative faculties.  Life experience has gradually taught him that human beings cannot make themselves happy by pursuing vague or abstract goals, that they always have to shift their goals to pursue something concrete: a spouse, the pleasures of bed, the comfort of the fireside, the beauty of the countryside. With this outlook, Ishmael realizes that the pleasures of squeezing sperm with the other sailors are as real and perfect as any happiness in life.
 

 

102-114

In the first four chapters, Ishmael continues to search for a way to represent the whale entirely. Ishmael builds his authority to write about the skeletons and fossil history of whales by talking about his trip to Tranque and his work as a stonemason and trench-digger. Although this is absurd,Tranque is fictional. In Chapter 85 , Ishmael refers to the writer as a “profound being” who doesn't have a lot to say about the world but is “forced to stammer out something by way of getting a living.” He then seems unsure of his own profundity, focusing instead on experience as the source of narrative. His tone and diction fit his subject on the whale which is  symbolically and physically huge.
 

 

115-125

Ishmael goes in and out of his own narration in these chapters, as Ahab’s control and authority on the ship increase. The events that occur in these chapters reflect Ahab’s increasing power as captain on the ship. First Ahab throws away the quadrant, then he refuses to put up the lightning rods, he makes his own compass, and breaks the log. The loss of the ship’s compass is probably most significant—its replacement with one of Ahab’s own manufacture suggests that the Pequod’ s path will now be dictated by Ahab’s will. Ahab has become so confident with himself that he alters the prophecy delivered by Fedallah who is his own private prophet. Ishmael frequently notes fatal accidents involving rope that can occur which Ahab neglects to acknowledge. Ahab’s willful misreading of Fedallah’s words shows his arrogant overconfidence. Ahab acquires an unexpected double. Pip and Ahab complement each other in many ways: Ahab is white, while Pip is black; Ahab is very important, while Pip plays a smaller part; Ahab is very high up being the captain, while Pip is at the bottom being a mascot; Ahab is old and wise, while Pip is young and knows nothing about whaling. Most important, they both seem to have a sense of insanity. Their situation creates between them a “man-rope; something that weak souls may hold by.” Ahab takes Pip almost as a son.
 

 

126-132

These chapters gets the reader and the Pequod ’s crew for the final confrontation with Moby Dick. The atmosphere of danger grows stronger as the narrative goes on. The operation of fate is unclear the sailors cannot differentiate what is realistic and what is fate. Ahab’s quest comes to seem strained, especially in the events with Rachel and the Delight, that an encounter with Moby Dick is both fated and sure to be fatal.  The conclusion may seems inevitable, events such as the coffin attached to the Pequod ’s stern. This is more of a symbol than an actual cause.
 

 

 

133- Epilogue