Moby Dick Lesson Plan

Chapter 1 focuses on characterizing our narrator, Ishmael, as a simple working man. Why is it so important that he be established this way?

Moby Dick is a very ambitious novel, encompassing several genres and writing styles. Far more than a simple adventure tale, Moby Dick is a travelogue, a character study, an allegory, and an informational work, among others. Ishmael remains the steady link between these different styles and episodes of the novel.

As such, Ishmael's simplicity is key to the novel: he is an everyman with no immediately defining characteristics (as opposed to, say, Queequeg or Ahab). Ishmael is positioned with this first chapter as a character who is...