Wednesday, December 12, 2012 12/12/12

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

12/12/12

Before we even talk about the contents of the novel, what are your thoughts so far?

Confusing? Challenging? Weird? Awesome?

Van Gogh’s “Starry Night Over the Rhone”

Van Gogh’s “Evening Landscape with Rising Moon”

Which painting resonates more with you? In other words, to which painting do you feel more connected?

To which painting would Ishmael say you are more connected?

BONUS OBJECT: My quilt, hand done by my aunt for my wedding

Today is your chance to earn a MOBIE

Debrief Chapter One:--Dealt with the “Call me Ishmael” issue--Land vs. sea

--What else can we gather from the word “Loomings”?--Other motifs you noticed with evidence?-- “Who ain’t a slave?”--Why start in this manner? Quiet opening, meditation on water,

reasons for being a sailor, his fate.--What adjectives could we use to describe Ishmael’s tone as a

narrator?

Chapter Two: “The Carpet Bag”

--Mood of New Bedford--Romanticism/Nostalgia re:

Nantucket --The Spouter Inn (Peter Coffin)--Lazarus-- “But no more of this blubbering

now, we are going a-whaling, and there is plenty of that yet to come. Let us scrape the ice from our frosted feet, and see what sort of a place this ‘Spouter’ may be.” [Ishmael’s voice]

New Bedford, MA - Today

New Bedford Whaling Museum

• http://www.whalingmuseum.org/learn/students

What Ishmael may have seen…

Chapter Three: “The Spouter Inn”

--The painting“Indefinite, half-attained, unimaginable”

--QUEEQUEG!--rumors about him --physical description--confrontation

Chapter Four: “The Counterpane”

Counterpane--another word for a bedspread--what is the extended metaphor here?

“But Queequeg, do you see, was a creature in transition state – neither caterpillar nor butterfly.” – Characterization– Human understanding: While Queequeg is introduced and

appears to be socially under developed and uncivilized, he may, internally be more civilized than most others, as we will come to understand throughout the journey.