In the Heart of the Sea: Ch. 5- 8

In Nathaniel Phillbrick’s non-fiction narrative In the Heart of the Sea-The Tragedy of the Whale ship Essex (2000) Phillbrick illustrates the tragedy of the whale ship Essex and man’s struggle against nature to their destination in South America. In chapter five, Phillbrick descriptively describes how the “strange whale” violently attacks the Essex, causing the crew to rely on their three whale boats to survive. He includes quotes from the crew members to evoke a first person feeling into the suspenseful tragedy. Phillbrick uses the style of describing a conflict with similes, metaphors and vivid imagery, to simply end with a telegraphic sentence with the result of it. In chapter 6 and 7, Phillbrick describes the decision Chase and Pollard have to make in order to travel to South America rather than going to Society Islands or to the West. Phillbrick illustrates the conflicts the crew members go through, by using complex sentences and descriptive images to evoke a tone of suspense. Such as, the decisions that they have to make, like: modifying the boats and having an equal distribution of food and people amongst the three boats. Only after 10 days, Phillbrick foreshadows how the men will become savages, by using heavy diction and very vivid descriptions while they eat the tortoise towards the end of chapter 7. Chapter 8 is introduced with a sense of relief with the extra food (goosenecks and flying fish), Lawerence's idea, and praying to God even though they were dying from thirst and hunger. Phillbrick concludes with a suspensuful telgraphic quote, "There island" their last hope of survival was found. Phillbrick’s purpose is to tell the tragedy of the Essex and describe the crucial obstacles, decision and suffrage that the crew members went through. This nonfiction piece seems to be intended for those who enjoy reading decisive sea adventures, and historical tragedies.

Vocabulary

Gale (n.) - Strong wind

Jittery (adj.) - having or feeling nervous unease

Qualms (n.) – an uneasy feeling of doubt, worry, or fear

Bludgeoned (v.) - beat repeatedly with a bludgeon or other heavy object

Squall (n.)  - a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed

jounce (v.) – move in an up- and down manner

Tone: Suspenseful, reflective, Hopeful(chapter 8) 

Rhetorical Strategies:

Analogy: “Like male elephants, bull sperm whales tend to be loners, moving from group to group of females and juveniles and challenging whatever male they meet along the way. The violence of these encounters is legendary” (pg.88).

Personification: “She was constructed almost entirely of white oak, one of the toughest and strongest of woods. Her ribs had been hewn from immense timbers, at least a foot square. Over that, laid force and aft, were oak planks four inches thick” (pg. 87).  

Imagery –“After ten days of eating only bread, the men greedy attacked the tortoise, their teeth ripping the succulent flesh as warm juice ran down their salt- entrusted faces. Their bodies’ instinctive need for nutrition led them irresistibly to the tortoise’s vitamin-rich heart and liver” (pg.118).

Irony: “Without their ship to protect them, the hunters had become the prey” (pg.116). “If they did succeed in reaching South America in sixty gays, each man knew he would be little more than a breathing skeleton” (pg. 107).

Simile: “Essex might at any moment break up and sink like a stone” (pg.90). “Pollard ordered that they tie up to the ship but leave at least a hundred yards of line between it and themselves. Like a string of duckling trailing their mother…” (pg.90). “…the ship’s deck had broken almost entirely from the hull. Like a whale dying in a slow motion flurry…” (pg.94). “…batting it around with its head and tail as a cat might to with a mouse…” (pg.115).

Discussion Questions:

1.       Why are there so many “ifs” and “would have’s” if what is done is done? What is the purpose of including them?

2.        “After ten days of eating only bread, the men greedy attacked the tortoise, their teeth ripping the succulent flesh as warm juice ran down their salt- entrusted faces” (pg.118). Is the diction used while the men in Chase’s boat eat the tortoise used to foreshadow the savage lives of the men in the boat?

3.       If the crew knew that Tahiti was closer than their destination in South America, would there have been fewer conflicts if they chose to go in that direction? Decisions are crucial, so should one person make the choice or the group as a whole?

Memorable Quote:

“The whaling business is peculiarly an ocean life…the sea, to mariners generally, is but a highway over which they travel to foreign markets; but to the whaler it is his field of labor, it is home of his business.” – Obed Macy (p.99)