Chapter 2 - Contexts

Summary

Introducing himself to the reader in “Loomings,” the first chapter of Moby-Dick, Ishmael feels compelled to explain why he goes to sea. As he does so, he gradually reveals his personality and his characteristic thought process. He is someone who examines any given subject from every possible angle. He contextualizes his decision to go to sea so broadly that the chapter provides a useful framework for understanding the philosophical, historical, and cultural contexts of Moby-Dick and, indeed, Herman Melville's work as a whole. Overall, “Loomings” suggests many different ways of looking at Melville's writings.

The existential context

In the chapter's initial paragraph, Ishmael asserts that going to sea gives him a way to preserve his very existence. Despite the weightiness of this assertion, Ishmael conveys the idea in a light-hearted manner. He describes the malaise that sometimes overcomes him on land and his ensuing compulsion to step into the street and methodically knock people's hats off. Given his humorous tone, readers may be unsure how seriously they should take what Ishmael says. At face value, his words suggest that if he could not sail the ocean, he would surely kill himself. Going to sea he calls his “substitute for pistol and ball” (W, VI, p. 3). The ocean supplies Ishmael's existential context. Without the escape it offers, suicide would be his only way out.