Focus on Words

Before you read
1. Do you enjoy an imaginary world of fantasy?
2. Can you find details in a situation?
3. Can you describe actions special to the event?
4. Is the writer positive, negative or neutral in his attitude to the main characters?
5. Are the ideas in a logical order?
6. Are ideas linked well?
Moby Dick
By Herman Melville
Moby Dick is considered to be one of the greatest novels of
all time. When it was written it was not popular. It was much later
that the readers were enchanted by its passion, its powerful
descriptions of the sea. In those days stories were told among
sailors about the famous whale Mocha Dick that lived close to the
island of Mocha, off southern Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. It was a
white whale who survived many battles with harpooners. He was
very fierce and attacked whaleboats. He drowned several
whaleboat crews before he was killed finally. Dick was the name
of the sailor who hunted him. Melville was a sailor himself before
he settled down in Massachusetts. The images of the ocean were
always alive in his memory. The story impressed him and he
started writing an adventure story.
The novel is an account of whaling in the 1800s. But not only
that. It is the story of an individual’s struggle against fate or
against nature, about the battle between good and evil, the great white whale symbolizing evil.
However, Ahab’s decision to destroy the whale can be seen as evil and wicked too. There is a
third force – the ocean who is a witness of this gigantic struggle.
It was a clear blue morning the next day. The sea and the sky were the same colour
of blue and the air was soft and warm. The sun was high in the sky and small birds
circled round our masts as we sailed.
Ahab was walking up and down, his eyes shining like two small fires as he stared
out to sea. His beard was twisted and knotted and his face was burned a deep brown by
the sun and wind. He looked over the side of the ship and watched his own shadow in
the water. At first, the beautiful morning seemed to do nothing to improve his dark
thoughts, whatever they were. But as the minutes went by his face softened. Then a
tear slowly rolled down his cheek and fell into the ocean.
Starbuck was watching the old man. He saw how heavily Ahab leaned over the
side of the ship.
He moved and stood beside him.
“Oh, Starbuck,” said Ahab. “It’s a soft, warm day, with a gentle wind. I struck my
first whale on a day like this. I was a boy harpooner, only eighteen years old. Forty
years ago. I’ve chased whales for forty years, Starbuck. Forty years of storms, and all
the terrible dangers of sailing. In all those years I’ve only been ashore for three of
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