Chapter 65 - The Whale as a Dish Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 65 - The Whale as a Dish
What paradox about Stubb opens Chapter 65?
Stubb eats whale meat by the light of lamps burning the whale's own oil—he feeds upon the creature that feeds his lamp.
What was considered a great delicacy in France three centuries before the novel's events?
The tongue of the Right Whale.
What did a cook in Henry VIII's court invent?
An admirable sauce to be eaten with barbecued porpoises.
How is porpoise meat prepared, according to Ishmael?
It is made into balls about the size of billiard balls, well seasoned and spiced, resembling turtle-balls or veal balls.
Who held a "great porpoise grant from the crown"?
The old monks of Dunfermline.
Why do whalemen generally avoid eating whale meat?
Because the sheer quantity—a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet long—takes away their appetite.
What does the Esquimaux doctor Zogranda recommend for infants?
Strips of blubber, which he considers exceedingly juicy and nourishing.
What are "fritters" in the context of Dutch whaling?
Mouldy scraps of whale left ashore after trying out the blubber; they are brown, crisp, and smell like old Amsterdam doughnuts.
Why is whale meat considered too rich to be a civilized dish?
The whale is excessively fatty—its hump is a solid pyramid of fat, and its spermaceti is far too rich to substitute for butter.
How do sailors eat spermaceti during night watches?
They dip ship-biscuit into the huge oil-pots and let it fry there awhile.
How are small sperm whale brains prepared as food?
The skull is broken open with an axe, the two whitish lobes are withdrawn, mixed with flour, and cooked into a mess resembling calves' head.
What joke does Ishmael make about young men who eat calves' brains?
They eventually "get to have a little brains of their own" so they can tell a calf's head from their own heads.
What rhetorical question does Ishmael ask about cannibalism?
"Cannibals? who is not a cannibal?"
Who does Ishmael say is more forgivable than the civilized gourmand?
The Fijian ("Fejee") who salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine.
What cruel practice does Ishmael attribute to civilized gourmands?
Nailing geese to the ground and feasting on their bloated livers as pâté de foie gras.
What hypocritical detail does Ishmael point out about roast beef diners?
Their knife handles are made from the bones of the same kind of animal (ox) they are eating.
What does the Society for the Suppression of Cruelty of Ganders recently resolve to do?
To patronize nothing but steel pens, rather than quills made from goose feathers.
What broader philosophical theme does Chapter 65 explore?
The moral hypocrisy of civilized society, which condemns "savage" practices like cannibalism while engaging in its own forms of animal cruelty and exploitation.
What comparison does Ishmael draw between the spermaceti and a coconut?
He says spermaceti resembles the transparent, half-jellied, white meat of a coconut in its third month of growth, but is far too rich for butter.
What does the phrase "adding insult to injury" refer to in this chapter?
Stubb eating whale meat by the light of lamps burning the whale's own oil.