Reading through these chapters has been some of the most interesting for me, mostly because I feel like after all this time I can finally piece together some of Melville’s thoughts. The part of the reading that drew my attention the most was chapter 113, where Ahab wants Perth to make him a special Harpoon that is made with the sole intention of killing Moby-Dick. One of the main aspects that I have been most interested in throughout the book has been Ahab’s obsession with killing Moby-dick and how that affects both himself and the people around him. With how much we have talked about the sequence of chapters, I have tried to pay even more attention to Melville’s intentions while reading and I loved how this chapter followed the blacksmith chapter where we are introduced to Perth and his backstory. Perth was highly skilled and respected as a blacksmith before he became an alcoholic and lost everything, “the blacksmith himself did ignorantly conduct this burglar into his family’s heart. It was the Bottle Conjuror! Upon the opening of that fatal cork, forth flew the fiend, and shrivelled up his home” (528). Perth fell into alcoholism which was inevitably what caused the end of his family, and home. The fatal cork took over Perth’s life and flipped everything on its head. Melville putting this scene before Ahab demanding a special harpoon was brilliant, and the piece that stuck with me from this chapter is when Ahab states, “I have no need for them; for I now neither shave, sup, nor pray till — but here — to work!” (532). This quote is another demonstration of Ahab reducing his life to the sole purpose of vengeance. It also shows him putting this pursuit of Moby-Dick over everything, the basic human needs such as eating and hygiene, as well as something as important to him as his beliefs and prayer. Ahab’s need for revenge can be seen as an addiction much like Perth’s and the two characters are put together to show Ahab letting his obsession take over his life and Perth being the example of the aftermath.