In Nathaniel Phillbrick’s nonfiction narrative, In the Heart of the Sea- The Tragedy of the Whale ship Essex (2000) Phillbrick narrates the tragedy of the whale ship Essex and the crew’s decisive strategies to survive at sea to their destination in South America. In chapter nine, Phillbrick brings a sense of hope once the three boats reach Ducie Island, “Land Ho.” He describes the desperate need of food and water by vividly describing how the crew eventually ate nearly everything on the island. Then, Phillbrick’s tone shifts from hopeful to sorrowful when Mathew Joy dies. Once, the three whale boats were separated the need for food was unbearable. Phillbrick provides studies and facts, such as; the effects of starvation and a black person’s life expectancy at sea, to ensure credibility. Cannibalism at sea was widespread by the nineteenth century, and shipwrecked sailors often ate their dead shipmates when they had no other alternative. Therefore, Phillbrick provides and compares examples of tragedies that led to cannibalism with the Essex tragedy, such as; the Nottingham Galley and Peggy. Throughout chapters ten and eleven, four black sailors died and were eaten in less than a week and a half this shows how cannibalism took over their beliefs. Phillbrick also compares shipwrecks with Nazi concentration camps to provide similarities of what starvation causes. He ends chapter eleven with Pollard’s boat casting lots leading to Coffin’s death. His purpose is to describe the tragedy of the Essex by including the struggles, decisions, and the descriptions of cannibalism and starvation to show the terrible life lived by the sailors. However, to also hit the ideas of leadership, teamwork, race differences, and survival. This nonfiction narrative seems to be intended for those who enjoy reading historical tragedies and to understand the way in which humans act when put into dangerous situations.
Vocabulary
Eerie (adj.): Strange and frightening.
Nil (n.): nothing
Euphoria (n): A feeling of happiness, confidence or wellbeing
Voracious (adj.): Consuming or eager to consume great amounts of food; ravenous.
Repine (v): to be fretfully discounted
Shorn: past participle of shear: to cut
Feral (adj.): existing in a natural state: not domesticated or cultivated.
Tone: hopeful (chapter 9), sorrowful (chapter 10 and +11), grievous
Rhetorical Strategies:
Simile: “They wandered the beach like ragged skeletons, pausing to lean against trees and rocks to catch their breath” (pg. 138) and “Like the men of the Essex, birds and plant species had to fight their way upwind and upstream to reach Henderson”(pg. 144)
Facts/ Statics: “The biological anthropologist Stepen McGravey has speculated that the people who survived these voyages tended to have a higher percentage of body fat before the voyage began…allowing them to live longer on less food…” (pg. 146). “The life expectancy of a black infant in 1900… was only thirty-three years, more than fourteen years less than that of white infant” (pg. 146).
Personification: “death itself staring us in the face” (pg. 150).
Imagery: “Still, the distribution of provisions remained the most important part of the day. Some of the men attempted to make their portion last as long as possible, nibbling it almost daintily and savoring each tiny morsel with the little saliva their mouths could generate. Others ate their ration virtually whole, hoping to provide their stomachs with at least some sensations of fullness” (pg. 160) and “…they next would have removed Thomas’s heart, liver, and kidneys from the bloody basket of his ribs. Then they would have begun to hack the meat from the backbone, ribs, and pelvis” (pg. 166)/.
Irony: “It was a black night, and the noise that had once signaled the thrill of the hunt now terrified them” (pg. 162) and “As it turned out, the lot fell to the man who had originally made the proposal, and after lots were cast again to see who should execute him, he was killed and eaten” (pg. 174).
(a lot of comparisons in these 3 chapters)
Discussion Questions:
1. What is meant by, “Who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb” (pg. 169)?
2. The statistics were suspicious because of the first four sailors to be eaten were black, so was this because of “natural” death or racial deaths?
3. If you were put into a situation of life or death like the sailors of the Essex, would you consider cannibalism as one of your choices?
Memorable Quote:
“Still, the distribution of provisions remained the most important part of the day. Some of the men attempted to make their portion last as long as possible, nibbling it almost daintily and savoring each tiny morsel with the little saliva their mouths could generate. Others ate their ration virtually whole, hoping to provide their stomachs with at least some sensations of fullness. Afterward, all of them fastidiously licked the residue from their fingers.” (pg. 160) (Phillbrick, 2000)
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