Chapter 59 - Squid Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 59 - Squid
Where is the Pequod sailing at the start of Chapter 59?
Northeast toward the island of Java, slowly wading through meadows of brit (tiny sea organisms).
Who first spots the white mass from the main-mast-head?
Daggoo, the African harpooner on Starbuck's boat.
What does Daggoo initially believe the white mass to be?
Moby Dick. He cries out: "There she breaches! right ahead! The White Whale, the White Whale!"
What does Ahab immediately order when the white mass is sighted?
He orders all four boats lowered to pursue what he believes is Moby Dick.
What does the white mass turn out to be?
A giant squid—a vast, cream-colored, pulpy mass with innumerable long arms radiating from its center.
How does Melville describe the squid's arms?
"Innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to catch at any hapless object within reach."
What is notably absent from the squid's appearance?
It has "no perceptible face or front" and "no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct"—it is completely formless.
How does Melville characterize the squid as a life form?
As "an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life."
What does Starbuck say after the squid disappears?
"Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!"
What does Starbuck identify the creature as?
"The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it."
How does Ahab react to the squid?
He says nothing. He silently turns his boat and sails back to the vessel, disappointed it was not Moby Dick.
Why is seeing the giant squid considered an omen among whalemen?
Because it is so rarely glimpsed, its extreme rarity has "gone far to invest it with portentousness" and superstitious significance.
What role does the giant squid play in the sperm whale's diet?
Whalemen believe the giant squid furnishes the sperm whale its only food, obtained in unknown zones below the surface.
What evidence suggests sperm whales eat squid?
When closely pursued, sperm whales disgorge detached squid arms, some exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length.
Why do whalemen believe sperm whales have teeth?
They believe sperm whales are "supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear" the giant squid, which clings to the ocean floor.
Who is Bishop Pontoppidan?
An eighteenth-century Norwegian clergyman who described the Kraken, a legendary sea monster that Melville suggests may actually be the giant squid.
How does Melville connect the squid to the Kraken legend?
He notes that the Kraken's described behavior of "alternately rising and sinking" matches the squid, though the Bishop's claims about its size require "much abatement."
What scientific classification does Melville mention for the squid?
It is "included among the class of cuttle-fish," but only as "the Anak of the tribe"—meaning the giant among its kind.
What is the "Anak of the tribe" a reference to?
A Biblical reference to the Anakim, a race of giants in the Old Testament (Numbers 13:33), emphasizing the squid's enormous size relative to other cuttle-fish.
What atmospheric conditions precede the squid's appearance?
A "transparent blue morning" with "a stillness almost preternatural," slippered waves whispering, and a golden sun-glade "like a golden finger laid across them, enjoining some secrecy."
How does the chapter contrast Starbuck and Ahab?
Starbuck is deeply shaken by the squid and sees it as a bad omen; Ahab is utterly indifferent to anything that is not Moby Dick, revealing his monomaniacal obsession.