Chapter 58 - Brit Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 58 - Brit
What is brit?
A minute, yellow substance floating on the ocean surface that serves as the primary food source for Right Whales.
From which islands is the Pequod steering when it encounters the brit?
The Crozet Islands (Crozetts). The ship is heading north-eastward.
What does the brit-covered sea look like, according to Ishmael?
Boundless fields of ripe and golden wheat.
How do the Right Whales feed on brit?
They swim through it with open jaws, filtering the brit through their baleen plates (which Ishmael calls a "wondrous Venetian blind") while water escapes at the lips.
Why are the Pequod's crew safe from these Right Whales?
The Pequod is a Sperm Whaler, not a Right Whale hunter, so the Right Whales are "secure from the attack" of the ship.
To what does Ishmael compare the Right Whales cutting through brit?
Morning mowers who side by side slowly advance their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meadows.
What do the Right Whales resemble when seen from the mastheads?
Lifeless masses of rock. Ishmael also compares them to elephants on the Indian plains that a stranger mistakes for elevations of soil.
Why are the waters called the "Brazil Banks"?
Not because of shallows or soundings, but because the vast drifts of brit give the sea a meadow-like appearance.
What challenge does Ishmael pose to the old naturalist theory that all land creatures have sea counterparts?
He asks where the ocean furnishes any fish with "the sagacious kindness of the dog," arguing that only the accursed shark bears any analogy.
According to Ishmael, has humanity truly mastered the sea?
No. He insists that "for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make."
What biblical event does Ishmael say has never truly ended?
Noah's Flood. He says "two thirds of the fair world it yet covers."
What biblical story does Ishmael use to compare miracles on land vs. sea?
The story of Korah, whose company was swallowed by the earth. Ishmael notes the sea swallows ships and crews in precisely the same manner every day.
To what animal does Ishmael compare the sea when it destroys its own creatures?
A savage tigress that, tossing in the jungle, overlays (crushes) her own cubs.
What does Ishmael say about the appearance of the sea's most dangerous creatures?
They are often hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure, and many remorseless predators like sharks have devilish brilliance and beauty.
What phrase does Ishmael use to describe the sea's food chain?
"The universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began."
What is the "insular Tahiti" in the soul of man?
A small island of peace and joy that lies within every person, but is encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.
What warning does Ishmael give at the end of the chapter?
"Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!" — once you leave the inner peace of your insular Tahiti, you cannot get it back.
What does "terra incognita" mean in the context of this chapter?
Unknown territory. Ishmael calls the sea "an everlasting terra incognita," meaning it will never be fully known or conquered by humans.
What comparison does Ishmael draw between the sea and the "masterless ocean"?
He compares the ocean to a mad battle steed that has lost its rider, panting and snorting as it overruns the globe with no power to control it.
How does the chapter transition from naturalistic observation to philosophy?
It begins with a concrete description of Right Whales feeding on brit, then gradually shifts to reflections on sea vs. land, the terror of the ocean, and finally the metaphor of the insular Tahiti of the human soul.