Chapter 111 - The Pacific Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 111 - The Pacific

What islands does the Pequod pass as it enters the Pacific Ocean?

  • The Galápagos Islands, famous for their giant tortoises
  • The Bashee Isles, between the Philippines and Taiwan
  • The Marquesas Islands, where Melville once lived among natives
  • The Solomon Islands, known for their treacherous coral reefs

What does Ishmael say was answered when he first saw the Pacific?

  • A promise he made to his mother before leaving Nantucket
  • The long supplication of his youth -- a lifelong desire to see it
  • A bet he had placed with Queequeg about the ocean's color
  • A philosophical question he had debated with Father Mapple

To what does Ishmael compare the Pacific's mysterious undulations?

  • The breathing of a sleeping giant beneath the waves
  • The fabled movement of the Ephesian sod over the buried St. John
  • The rhythmic pulse of a great whale's beating heart
  • The rise and fall of ancient Greek funeral pyres by the sea

What does Ishmael say lies dreaming beneath the Pacific waves?

  • Ancient shipwrecks carrying the treasures of lost civilizations
  • Millions of mixed shades, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, and reveries
  • The bones of whales hunted across a thousand years of whaling
  • Coral kingdoms ruled by mysterious underwater creatures and gods

How does Ishmael describe the Pacific's relationship to the Atlantic and Indian oceans?

  • They are rival seas that constantly battle for dominance over trade routes
  • They are equal partners forming a trinity of interconnected world oceans
  • They are merely the Pacific's arms, as it rolls the midmost waters
  • They are older and deeper oceans that the Pacific flows between

What two contrasting shores does the Pacific connect?

  • The frozen coasts of Antarctica and the tropical beaches of Hawaii
  • The rocky cliffs of New England and the sandy shores of West Africa
  • The new California towns and the ancient Asiatic lands older than Abraham
  • The volcanic islands of Japan and the flat coral reefs of Australia

What cosmic metaphor does Ishmael use for the Pacific?

  • It is the sleeping eye of God, watching over all creation below
  • It is the world's mirror, reflecting heaven's starry vault back upward
  • It seems the tide-beating heart of earth, zoning the world's bulk
  • It is the cradle of all life, rocking the continents like infants

To what god does Ishmael say one must bow when lifted by the Pacific's swells?

  • Neptune, the Roman god of the sea and earthquakes
  • Poseidon, the Greek ruler of oceans and storms
  • Pan, the Greek god of nature, shepherds, and the wild
  • Aeolus, the Greek keeper of the winds and tempests

How is Ahab physically described in this chapter?

  • Pacing the quarterdeck with his ivory leg clicking rhythmically
  • Hunched over his charts in the cabin, plotting coordinates obsessively
  • Standing like an iron statue at his accustomed place beside the mizen rigging
  • Leaning against the mainmast with his harpoon raised toward the horizon

What two scents does Ahab simultaneously smell?

  • Whale oil from the try-pots and fresh salt water from the bow spray
  • The sugary musk from the Bashee Isles and the salt breath of the new sea
  • Tobacco smoke from Stubb's pipe and the tang of approaching storms
  • Tar from the ship's hull and the floral perfume of distant island flowers

What is significant about the word "consciously" versus "unthinkingly" in describing Ahab's two nostrils?

  • It shows Ahab has lost his sense of smell on one side due to injury
  • It reveals that Ahab deliberately focuses on the sea where Moby Dick swims while ignoring earthly pleasures
  • It suggests Ahab is falling asleep at his post from exhaustion
  • It indicates Ahab is testing the wind direction to navigate more efficiently

What simile describes Ahab's lips as his purpose intensifies?

  • They curl like the edges of a weathered sail in strong wind
  • They press together like the lips of a vice, tight and unyielding
  • They thin out like a knife blade drawn across a whetstone edge
  • They tremble like the surface of the sea before a coming storm

What does Ahab cry out in his sleep?

  • "Thar she blows! The White Whale rises from the deep!"
  • "Stern all! the White Whale spouts thick blood!"
  • "To the last I grapple with thee, thou damned whale!"
  • "All ye mastheads, keep your eyes upon the sea!"

What is the central thematic contrast established in Chapter 111?

  • The contrast between the Pequod's worn condition and the pristine Pacific waters
  • The contrast between Ishmael's awe at the Pacific's beauty and Ahab's obsessive fixation on Moby Dick
  • The contrast between the crew's desire to go home and Ahab's desire to keep sailing
  • The contrast between the Pacific's calm surface and the violent storms that await

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