Plot Summary
Chapter 14 of Moby-Dick marks Ishmael and Queequeg's arrival on the island of Nantucket after an uneventful voyage from New Bedford. Rather than advancing the plot, this brief chapter serves as one of Melville's celebrated digressions — a lyrical meditation on the island itself. Ishmael invites the reader to examine a map and appreciate the sheer isolation of Nantucket, "a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background." He catalogs a series of humorous exaggerations about the island's barrenness: that weeds must be planted, that wood is treated like holy relics, and that small clams cling to furniture as if it were the back of a sea turtle.
Ishmael then recounts a Native American origin legend in which an eagle snatches an infant from the New England coast and carries it out to sea. The grief-stricken parents paddle their canoes to Nantucket, where they discover only their child's skeleton in an "empty ivory casket." This somber tale transitions into a rousing celebration of how the Nantucketers evolved from humble crab-catchers into the supreme masters of the world's oceans.
Character Development
Though no named characters act in this chapter, Ishmael's voice as narrator comes into sharp focus. His role expands beyond that of a passive observer into an enthusiastic essayist and oral historian. The rhetorical exuberance on display — sweeping analogies, direct addresses to the reader, and rapid shifts between comedy and grandeur — reveals Ishmael as a deeply literate, philosophically restless storyteller. His admiration for the Nantucketers foreshadows his own ambition to participate in the whaling enterprise and establishes the cultural context for the Pequod's voyage.
Themes and Motifs
Man Versus the Sea: The chapter's central argument is that Nantucketers have conquered the ocean itself, living on it "as prairie cocks in the prairie." This anticipates the novel's broader meditation on humanity's attempt to dominate nature — and the dangers inherent in that ambition.
Isolation and Identity: Nantucket's geographic remoteness mirrors the spiritual and psychological isolation that pervades the novel. The islanders' identity is forged entirely by their relationship to the sea, a motif that will deepen as the Pequod sails farther from land.
Empire and Dominion: Ishmael compares the Nantucketers to Alexander the Great and to emperors, claiming they own two-thirds of the globe. This imperial rhetoric raises questions about American expansionism and the hubris of claiming mastery over nature.
Literary Devices
Hyperbole and Humor: Melville's catalog of exaggerations about Nantucket's sandiness — quicksand shoes, toadstools for shade, clams adhering to chairs — employs tall-tale humor rooted in American folk tradition.
Apostrophe: The exclamatory opening, "Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it," directly addresses the reader, creating immediacy and drawing the audience into Ishmael's rhetorical performance.
Epic Simile and Allusion: The Nantucketers are likened to Alexander the Great, emperors, chamois hunters, and prairie birds. Biblical allusion appears in the phrase "goes down to it in ships" (echoing Psalm 107) and the reference to Noah's flood, elevating the whalers' vocation to mythic stature.