Symbols in Moby Dick
Read the excerpt from Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick. It had previously come to me that this ivory leg had at sea been fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whale's jaw. How is the fact that Ahab's leg is made from whale bone significant to the novel's theme of man versus nature?
It signifies that Ahab has pitted himself against nature in an effort to dominate it.
Which best explains Melville's reason for describing how the sight of Ahab causes "foreboding shivers" in the narrator at the beginning of Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick?
Melville is building a mood of suspense.
Read the excerpt from Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick. Nor a word he spoke; nor did his officers say aught to him; though by all their minutest gestures and expressions, they plainly showed the uneasy, if not painful, consciousness of being under a troubled master-eye. Which best describes the theme Melville develops in this excerpt?
NOT B
Which best explains the symbolism behind Melville's use of the word "brand" to describe the scar on Ahab's body in Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick?
The source of Ahab's scar now owns him
Which best explains the purpose of the first two paragraphs of Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick?
They lead the reader into a description of the novel's main character, Ahab.
Which best explains how Melville uses his description of Ahab in Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick to comment on the nature of man?
Through Ahab, Melville symbolizes how obsession can take over a man's life.
Which best describes another comparison that Melville could have used to symbolize the rigid and unalterable character of Ahab in Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick?
a stone monument
Read the excerpt from Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick. It was one of those less lowering, but still grey and gloomy enough mornings of the transition, when with a fair wind the ship was rushing through the water with a vindictive sort of leaping and melancholy rapidity, that as I mounted to the deck at the call of the forenoon watch, so soon as I leveled my glance towards the taffrail, foreboding shivers ran over me. What theme in the novel does Melville allude to with his use of the word "vindictive" to describe the movement of the ship in this excerpt?
revenge
Read the excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 1 of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. SQUIRE TRELAWNEY, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof. Which best explains why the narrator mentions the gentleman's names in the opening sentence?
to establish credibility, suggesting many want to hear his tale
Read the excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 5 of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. "What in the world are you going to do now, Jo?" asked Meg one snowy afternoon, as her sister came tramping through the hall, in rubber boots, old sack, and hood, with a broom in one hand and a shovel in the other. "Going out for exercise," answered Jo with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "I should think two long walks this morning would have been enough! It's cold and dull out, and I advise you to stay warm and dry by the fire, as I do," said Meg with a shiver. "Never take advice! Can't keep still all day, and not being a pussycat, I don't like to doze by the fire. I like adventures, and I'm going to find some." Which best explains why Alcott begins the chapter with one character asking another character a question?
to stimulate the reader's desire to understand a character's motives