American Literature books summary

Whale from an "archaeological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of

view." He can't be too grandiloquent with his exaggerated words and diction

because the whale itself is so grand. He ashes credentials again, this time

as a geologist and then discusses his finds. But, again, he is unsatisfied:

"the skeleton of the whale furnishes but little clue to the shape of his

fully invested body." But this chapter does give a sense of the whale's age

and his pedigree.

Ishmael finally gives up, in awe, deconstructing the whale- -now he wants

to know if such a fabulous monster will remain on the earth. Ishmael says

that though they may not travel in herds anymore, though they may have

changed haunting grounds, they remain. Why? Because they have established a

new home base at the poles, where man cannot penetrate; because they've

been hunted throughout history and still remain; because the whale

population is not in danger for survival since many generations of whales

are alive at the same time.

Ahab asks the carpenter to make him a new leg because the one he uses is

not trustworthy. After hitting it heavily on the boat's wooden oor when he

returned from the Enderby, he does not think it will keep holding. Indeed,

just before the Pequod sailed, Ahab had been found lying on the ground with

the whalebone leg gouging out his thigh. So the carpenter, the do-it-all

man on the ship, has to make Ahab a new prosthetic leg. They discuss the

feeling of a ghost leg. When Ahab leaves, the carpenter thinks he is a

little queer.

A sailor then informs Ahab, in front of Starbuck, that the oil casks are

leaking. The sailor suggests that they stop to fix them, but Ahab refuses

to stop, saying that he doesn't care about the owners or profft. Starbuck

objects and Ahab points a musket at him. Says Starbuck, "I ask thee not to

beware of Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab;

beware of thyself, old man." In cleaning out the stowed oil casks, Queequeg

falls sick. Thinking he is going to die, Queequeg orders a coffn made. He

lies in it and closes the cover, as Pip dances around the coffn. Soon,

Queequeg feels well again and gets out. Ishmael attributes this to his

"savage" nature.

In The Pacific, Ishmael gets caught up in the meditative, serene Pacific

Ocean. At the end of the chapter, he comes back to Ahab, saying that no

such calming thoughts entered the brain of the captain. Ishmael then pans

over to the blacksmith whose life on land disintegrated. With

characteristic panache, Ishmael explains that the sea beckons to broken-

hearted men who long for death but cannot commit suicide. The Forge

dramatizes an exchange between the blacksmith and Ahab in which the captain

asks the blacksmith to make a special harpoon to kill the white whale.

Although Ahab gives the blacksmith directions, he takes over the crafting

of the harpoon himself, hammering the steel on the anvil and tempering it

with the blood of the three harpooneers (instead of water). The scene ends

with Pip's laughter.

In The Gilder, Ishmael considers how the dreaminess of the sea masks a

ferocity. He speaks of the sea as "gilt" because it looks golden in the sun-

set and is falsely calm. The sea even makes Starbuck rhapsodize, making an

apostrophe (direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a

personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a

speech or composition) to the sea; Stubb answers him by surprise and, as

usual, makes light of the situation.

Chapters 115-125

Summary

These chapters show how badly off the Pequod really is. The somber Pequod,

still on the lookout for Moby Dick, runs into the Bachelor, a festive

Nantucket whaler on its way home with a full cargo. The captain of the

Bachelor, saying that he has only heard stories of the white whale and

doesn't believe them, invites Ahab and the crew to join his party. Ahab

declines. The next day, the Pequod kills several whales and the way that a

dying whale turns towards the sun spurs Ahab to speak out to it in wondrous

tones. While keeping a night vigil over a whale that was too far away to

take back to the ship immediately, Ahab hears from Fedallah the prophecy of

his death. Before Ahab can die, he must see two hearses, one "not made by

mortal hands" and one made of wood from America; and only hemp can kill the

captain. Back on the ship, Ahab holds up a quadrant, an instrument that

gauges the position of the sun, to determine the ship's latitude. Ahab

decides that it does not give him the orienteering information he wants and

tramples it underfoot. He orders the ship to change direction.

The next day, the Pequod is caught in a typhoon. The weird weather makes

white ames appear at the top of the three masts and Ahab refuses to let the

crew put up lightning rods to draw away the danger. While Ahab marvels at

the ship's three masts lit up like three spermaceti candles, hailing them

as good omens and signs of his own power, Starbuck sees them as a warning

against continuing the journey. When Starbuck sees Ahab's harpoon also

ickering with fire, he says that this is a sign that God is against Ahab.

Ahab, however, grasps the harpoon, and says, in front of a frightened crew,

there is nothing to fear in the enterprise that binds them all together. He

blows out the ame to "blow out the last fear. "In the next chapter,

Starbuck questions Ahab's judgment again{this time saying that they should

pull down the main-top-sail yard. Ahab says that they should just lash it

tighter, complaining that his first mate must think him incompetent. On the

bulwarks of the forecastle, Stubb and Flask are having their own

conversation about the storm and Ahab's behavior. Stubb basically dominates

the conversation and says that this journey is no more dangerous than any

other is even though it seems as if Ahab is putting them in extreme danger.

Suspended above them all on the main-top-sail yard, Tashtego says to

himself that sailors don't care that much about the storm, just rum. When

the storm finally dies down, Starbuck goes below to report to Ahab. On the

way to Ahab's cabin, he sees a row of muskets, including the very one that

Ahab had leveled at him earlier. Angry about Ahab's reckless and selfish

behavior, he talks to himself about whether he ought to kill his captain.

He decides he cannot kill Ahab in his sleep and goes up.

When Ahab is on deck the next day, he realizes that the storm has thrown

off the compasses. Ahab then pronounces himself "lord over the level

loadstone yet" and makes his own needle. Here Ishmael comments, "In this

fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his fatal pride."

With all the other orienteering devices out of order, Ahab decides to pull

out the seldom-used log and line. Because of heat and moisture, the line

breaks and Ahab realizes that he now has none of his original orienteering

devices. He calls for Pip to help him and Pip answers with nonsense. Ahab,

touched by Pip's crazy speeches, says that his cabin will now be Pip's

because they boy "touchest [his] inmost center."

Chapters 126-132

Sailors are very superstitious. As the Pequod approaches the Equatorial

fishing ground, the sailors think that they hear ghosts wailing. The

Manxman (man from the Isle of Man) says that these are the voices of the

newly drowned men in the sea. Ahab says nonsense. When the Pequod's life-

buoy falls overboard and sinks, the sailors think it is a fulfillment of

evil that was foretold. The offcers decide to replace the life-buoy with

Queequeg's coffn.

Though the carpenter grumbles about having to transform the object, Ahab,

who is aware of the irony of the substitution, nevertheless calls the

carpenter "unprincipled as the gods" for going through with the

substitution.

The Pequod encounters the ship Rachel while it is looking for Moby Dick in

these waters. Captain Gardiner of the , after afirming that he has indeed

seen Moby Dick, climbs aboard Ahab's ship and begs Ahab to help him find

his son, whose whaleboat was lost in the chase after the white whale. Ahab

refuses. Now that Ahab knows that the white whale is near, he spends a lot

of time walking the decks. As Ahab goes up one time, Pip wants to follow

him. Ahab tells him to stay in the captain's cabin, lest Pip's insanity

start to cure his own just when he's getting close to the whale and needs

to be a little crazy.

And so Ahab, shadowed everywhere by Fedallah, remains on deck, ever

watchful. This continuous watch sharpens Ahab's obsession and he decides

that he must be the first to sight the whale. He asks Starbuck to help him

get up the main-mast head and watch his rope. When he is there, a black

hawk steals his hat; Ishmael this considers a bad omen. The Pequod then

runs into the miserably misnamed ship Delight. The Delight has indeed

encountered Moby Dick, but the result was a gutted whaleboat and dead men.

As the Pequod goes by, the Delight drops a corpse in the water and

sprinkles the Pequod's hull with a "ghostly baptism."

In the chapter called The Symphony, disparage parts come together for a

crescendo. The pressure finally gets to Ahab and he seems human here,

dropping a tear into the sea. He and Starbuck have a bonding moment as Ahab

sadly talks about his continual, tiring whaling. He calls himself a fool

and thinks himself pathetic. Starbuck suggests giving up the chase, but

Ahab wonders if he can stop because he feels pushed on by Fate. But as Ahab

is asking these grand questions, Starbuck steals away. When Ahab goes to

the other side of the deck to gaze into the water, Fedallah, too, is

looking over the rail.

Chapters 133-Epilogue

Summary

Ahab can sense by smell that Moby Dick is near. Climbing up to the main

royal-mast head, Ahab spots Moby Dick and earns himself the doubloon. All

the boats set off in chase of the whale. When Moby Dick finally surfaces,

he stoves Ahab's boat. The whale is swimming too fast away from them and

they all return to the ship.

Saying that persistent pursuit of one whale has historically happened

before, Ishmael comments that Ahab still desperately wants to chase Moby

Dick though he has lost one boat. They do sight Moby Dick again and the

crewmen, growing increasingly in awe of Ahab and caught up in the thrill of

the chase, lower three boats. Starbuck stays to mind the Pequod. Ahab tries

to attack Moby Dick head on this time, but again, Moby Dick is triumphant.

He stoves Ahab's ship and breaks his false leg. When they return to the

Pequod, Ahab finds out that Fedallah is gone, dragged down by Ahab's own

line. Starbuck tells him to stop, but Ahab, convinced that he is only the

"Fate's lieutenant," says he must keep pursuing the whale.

. Still on the look out, the crew spots the white whale for a third time

but sees nothing until Ahab realizes, "Aye, he's chasing me now; not I,

him{ that's bad." They turn the ship around completely and Ahab mounts the

masthead himself. He sights the spout and lowers again. As he gets into his

boat and leaves Starbuck in charge, the two men exchange a poignant moment

in which Ahab asks to shake hands with his first made and the first mate

tries to tell him not to go. Dangerously, sharks bite at the oars as the

boats pull away.

Starbuck, in a monologue, laments Ahab's sure doom. On the water, Ahab sees

Moby Dick breach. Seeing Fedallah strapped to the whale by turns of rope,

Ahab realizes that this is the first hearse that the Parsee had forecasted.

The whale goes down again and Ahab rows close to the ship. He tells

Tashtego to find another ag and nail it to the main masthead. The boats

soon see the white whale again and go after him. But Moby Dick only turns

around, and heads for the Pequod at full speed. He smashes the ship.

It goes down without its captain. The ship, Ahab realizes, is the second

hearse. Impassioned, Ahab is now determined to strike at Moby Dick with all

of his power: "Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering

whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee;

for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffns and all

hearses to one common pool and since neither can be mine, let me then tow

to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned

whale! Thus, I give up the spear!" After darting the whale, Ahab is caught

around the neck by the ying line. He is dragged under the sea. Tashtego,

meanwhile, is still trying to nail the ag to the ship's spar as it goes

down. He catches a sky-hawk in mid-hammer and the screaming bird, folded in

the ag, goes down with everything else.

In the Epilogue, Ishmael wraps up the story, saying that he is the only one

who survives the wreck. All the boats and ship were ruined. Ishmael

survives only because Queequeg's coffn bobs up and becomes his life buoy. A

day after the wreck, the Rachel, still cruising for her first lost son,

saves Ishmael.

The Scarlet Letter

Introduction-Chapter 1

Introduction: The first forty-four pages written by the author tell about

his life working at the Custom House in Salem Massachusetts. During his

time of employment there, he discovers some records in the attic and begins

to piece together the story of Hester Prynne, an adulterous man in Puritan

Salem. The Scarlet Letter is his account of the story with as many facts

as he, the author, was able to gather from the documents he found.

Chapter 1: Hawthorn’s first chapter is short, detailing the set up of

colonial Salem. He talks of the town and how essential prisons and

cemeteries are in the organization. Next to the steps of the Salem prison

is a rosebush that has survived centuries and Hawthorn says this bush gives

comfort with it’s beauty to the people who enter and leave the

establishment.

Chapter 2: A town meeting is taking place and the people of the town,

mainly the women, are gathered for the release of the adulteress, Hester

Prynne. She steps out of the prison with the town beadle leading her with

his hand on her shoulder. Hawthorn describes her as beautiful with a very

proud stature that does not cower to the crowd of disdain that surrounds

her. On her chest she bears the scarlet letter ‘A’ that is surrounded by

shining gold thread upon a gown that scandalizes the women of the town.

Clutched close to her breast is the child that was produced by her adultery

and the apparent reason she was not more harshly punished for her crime.

She stood there under public scrutiny, not with a look of shame but almost

bewilderment that her life had panned out as it had.

Chapter 3: Mistress Prynne is placed upon the pillory for three hours so

all can see her shame. As she is standing there with her babe, she notices

a new man in town along with an Indian. From the moment she sees him, she

cannot take her eyes from him. An angry look quickly flashes across the

man’s face at the sight of her and he inquires to the town person next to

him why the woman is made to stand upon the pillory. Both the man and the

readers are informed that Mistress Prynne was married to a man who has not

yet returned from the Netherlands where they sailed from to New England.

Because she was so long away from her husband, it is obvious that he was

not the father of her child. The man asked of her sentence, and of the man

who did father the child and the town’s person told him that the father is

not known. The Governor of the town who is standing on a higher platform

then appeals to the Reverend Dimmesdale to extract the name of father from

Mistress Prynne. After an emotional plea to Mistress Prynne, she still

refuses to state the name of the father of her child, and states that her

child has only a heavenly father.

Chapter 4: When Mistress Prynne was returned to the prison, she was in such

mental disarray that the jailer, Master Brackett, decided to call in the

physician. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s real husband, introduces himself

as the physician for Mistress Prynne and as soon as he enters the room, she

goes perfectly still. Mr. Chillingsworth was the same man who she saw when

she was on the pillory. He began to examine the baby and Hester expresses

her concern that he will hurt the child as revenge on her.

They talk about their failed marriage, and how there was never love

between them, and Roger tells her not to reveal to anyone who he really

was. After giving her a draught to calm her, he asks her who the father of

the child was. Again, as she did when asked by the Reverend, she refuses

to give the name of the father. At her refusal, he tells her that he will

find out who the man is and that she not breathe a word of his identity to

anyone.

Chapter 5: Hester was released from prison and free to go wherever she

wished. Instead of fleeing the town she moved to a little cottage outside

of it, and supported herself with her needlework. She sewed for many

different people of the town but kept herself in plain clothing, save the

letter upon her bosom. She took all of the passion of her life and used it

to ply her needle. Much of her work she donated to the poor as penance for

her guilt. Although they all coveted her services, she was still an

outcast looked upon with malice and her sin burned deep in her soul.

Chapter 6: Hester named her child Pearl because she was her treasure in

life. Pearl was beautiful and intelligent, and had an air of a nymph about

her. Even as a baby, the child was fascinated by the scarlet letter Hester

wore upon her breast. This was a constant reminder for Hester of her sin.

Pearl was a happy laughing child who had a fiery passion and temper that

made Hester and others wonder if she was a demon with her black eyes.

Everywhere Hester went Pearl went also. They had only each other. Hester

attempted to raise her daughter with Puritan values but could not

discipline her and Pearl held the strings on whether or not she did what

she was told. Chapter 7: Hester and Pearl went to the Governor

Bellingham’s house to deliver a pair of gloves she had embroidered for him.

More than the delivery, Hester was there to plead to be able to keep

Pearl. The people of the town thought that because of her sin, Hester was

unfit to raise her child. When she arrived to the house, the governor was

with other gentleman in the garden and they waited for a chance to speak

with him. As they were waiting, Pearl was examining a shining suit of

armor and saw Hester in it. She was delighted by the sight, and Hester’s

image was lost behind the large shiny red letter that was magnified by the

polished armor.

Chapter 8: The Governor, the pastor John Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale, and

Roger Chillingworth exited the garden to find their path blocked by the

nymph Pearl. Struck by the beauty of the scarlet clad child they ask her

to whom she belongs. She answers that she is Pearl, and her mother’s

child. As they enter the hall, they see Mistress Prynne and are happy that

she has come so they can discuss what to do with Pearl. Testing to see

whether the child has been properly instructed so far, the dotting John

Winston asks young Pearl who made her. Pearl, though she knew the correct

answer was the Heavenly Father answered that she had been plucked by her

mother from the rose bush by the prison door.

The gentlemen were appalled by the child’s answer and decided that Hester

should not raise her further. Hester was angry with this and pleaded

Reverend Dimmesdale who knew she was capable of guiding the child

spiritually to let her keep Pearl. She argued that God gave her Pearl, and

that they could not take away the only joy that God gave her. After

discussing it further among themselves, with the Reverend giving an

impassioned plea for Hester, they decided to let her keep Pearl. Hester

was thankful, and she and Pearl left for home. Mr. Chillingworth offered

to figure out the identity of the father of the child, but his offer was

refused. As she leaves, Hester realizes that she would have sold her soul

to the devil if it meant she could keep her child.

Chapter 9: Since his first appearance in town, the people looked on Roger

Chillingworth as a blessing. They were thankful that such a learned

physician was given to them. As time went on, Mr. Chillingworth and the

Reverend Dimmesdale became very close. Though he was young, the Reverend

was growing sicker and sicker by the day and the people of the town

implored him to let the physician examine him. He refused but continued to

become closer and closer to the old man. After a while they even began

living together in the home of a respected matron of the town. As time

passed, the people began to look at Mr. Chillingworth differently however.

Instead of seeing a man sent from God to help them, they saw in his old

disfigured form, a servant of Satan that was sent to haunt the Reverend.

Chapter 10: Mr. Chillingworth watched the Reverend searching him for the

secret sin of his soul. Searching for Hester’s lover became the secret

purpose of his life and it clouded his head and heart. Slowly he was

trying to get the Reverend to confess to the deed, and one afternoon began

a discussion with him about unconfessed sin and how it eats away at the

soul. While they are talking, they see Hester and Pearl in the cemetery.

They look up at the men in the window and they wonder if the mischevious

nymph like, Pearl, is true evil. After the woman and the child leave the

cemetery, the men continue with their conversation.

Mr. Chillingworth accuses the Reverend that he cannot cure him until he

knows the pain upon his soul because that sin is part of his bodily

ailment. In a moment of passion, the Reverend blows up at him telling him

that he will reveal nothing to the earthly man and leaves the room. This

display of passion makes Mr. Chillingworth exceptionally pleased because it

brings him closer to finding out that his suspicions of Hester and the

Reverend are true.

Chapter 11: As the days went by the Reverend Dimmesdale continued to be

haunted more and more by the sin upon his soul. He would look upon his

companion the physician with disgust and feel as if the black part of his

heart was spilling over into the rest of his life. The people of the town

began to worship him more, saying he was a wonderful and saintly young

preacher. As they looked up to him with greater fervor, he began to hate

himself more. Many a time he stood on his pulpit aching to tell them of

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