In the Heart of the Sea (Assgmt 2)

In the piece retelling the tragedy of the Essex, “In the Heart of the Sea” (2000), particularly chapters five through eight, the author, Nathaniel Philbrick, appropriately conveys the desperation, inactivity, and hopelessness found in the characters after the destruction of their whaleship. Philbrick favors the use of telegraphic sentences to create suspense and indirect foreshadowing, e.g. “Pollard told them that his boat had been attacked by a whale.” (Pg115) Additionally, the author alludes to the social classes during this period using the clannish Nantucketeers as examples. With vivid and intense imagery, Phil;brick creates a vision of mental and physical suffering among the sailors. The audience targeted by the author at this point of the novel is a group of avid readers of nautical pieces and/or adventures tales. The purpose of this section of the book is to detail the loss of the ship, the interactions among the shipmates while in survival mode, and the inclusion of historical facts somehow related to the tale, in order to set up the most certainly remarkable survival in the following chapters.

Vocabulary

• Arduous: requiring hard work or continuous physical effort
• Iridescent: having rainbow colors that appear to move and change as the angle at which they are seen changes
• Incongruous: unsuitable or out of place in a specific setting or context
• Pine: the wood from an evergreen tree, varying from soft to hard. Use: furniture-making, construction, finishing material.
• Proverbial: expressed as a proverb, or resembling a proverb either in form or because of being widely known or referred to
• Provision: the act of providing or supplying something
• Reckoning: the act or a system of calculating something
• Relegate: to move somebody or something to a less important position, category, or status
• Repast: a meal, or the food eaten at a meal

Tone

Shifts from just logical and suspenseful to also fear-provoking and distressed

Rhetorical Strategies

• Telegraphic sentences; “Then it started to blow hard.” (Pg 114)
• Imagery; “The tongue swells to such proportions that it squeezes past the jaws. The eyelids crack and the eyeballs begin to reap tears of blood. The throat is so swollen that breathing becomes difficult, creating an incongruous yet terrifying sensation of drowning.” (Pg 127)
• Similes; “Like male elephants, bull sperm whales tend to be loners…” (Pg 88)
• Irony; “By spurning the Society Islands and Sailing for South America, the Essex officers chose to take their chances with an element they did know well: the sea.” (Pg 99)
• Allusion [to historical facts]; “White sailors often looked to blacks and their evangelical style of worship as a source of religious strength.” (Pg 132)

Discussion Questions

1. What significance does Nickerson play in the retalling of the historical tale?
2. Why does the author favor telegraphic sentences for this particular story to indicate upcoming events, rather than complex sentence structures?
3. What purpose does the inclusion of outside quotes serve in the novel?

Quote

“With every blow of his hammer against the side of the damaged boat, Chase was unwittingly transmitting sounds down through the wooden skin of the whaleship out into the ocean. Whether or not the whale perceived these sounds as coming from another whale, Chase’s hammering appears to have attracted the creature’s attention.”

In the Heart of the Sea (Assgnmt 1)

In the fictional novel, “In the Heart of the Sea” (2000), by Nathaniel Philbrick, the author vividly reiterates the tragedy of the whale ship Essex, through gathered historical facts from books detailing firsthand experience, in addition to quotes and excerpts from seamen of the ship, particularly Thomas Nickerson. The story follows a chronological order will presumably end in the aftermath of the tragedy. The author favors periodic sentences, especially when developing the oceanic imagery and delivering the concrete sensory details. He also takes advantage of nautical jargon to give the novel, e.g. identifying the ship as a woman, which ties into personification. Of course, the novel is also filled with historical allusions that keep it nostalgic. The author targets an audience of readers of sea tales and adventures, and/ or historical tragedies, in order to provide the audience with detailed explanation of the Essex tragedy in the form of dramatic entertainment. The purpose of the novel, based on the reading so far, is to restore this “epic tale” back in the prominence in history.

Vocabulary

• Disparagement: to refer disapprovingly or contemptuously to somebody or something
• Lucrative: producing profit or wealth
• Incessant: continuing for a long time without stopping
• Scruples: a moral or ethical consideration that tends to restrain action or behavior
• Cordage: the amount of wood in a stack, measured in cords

Tone

Perilous, logical, nostalgic

Rhetorical Strategies

• Nautical jargon; “As usual, three topgallant sails were pulling from the upper yards…” (Pg 37)
• Personification; “Immense block-and-tackle systems were strung from the ship’s masts to the wharf to haul the ship onto her side.” (Pg 18)
• Periodic sentences; “As he scrambled up the Essex’s side, then made his way aft to quarterdeck, Captain Pollard knew that the entire town was watching him and his men.” (Pg 29)
• Imagery; “When a ship is heeled over by forty-five degrees or more, her hull might be compared to a fat man on the short end of a lopsided seesaw.” (Pg 40)
• Historical allusions; “…privileged citizens of what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the “Nation of Nantucket.”” (Pg 7)

Discussion Questions

1. Because the subtitle of the novel- Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex- indicates a future death of a character (which are not always humans), predict the final outcome of the novel. Keep in mind that a few characters survive since their quotes can be found throughout the book.
2. How much belief would you have in Philbrick’s retelling of the tale, knowing it was not his firsthand experience?
3. Why does the author choose to use nautical jargon, knowing that his audience will not always understand its meaning?

Quote

“Living on a island that was almost the same distance from the mainland as England was from France, Nantucketeers developed a British sense of themselves as a distinct and superior people, privileged citizens of what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the “Nation of Nantucket.”” (Pg 7)