For my final essay, I’m not 100% sure I will write about this but one thing has been on my mind throughout the semester is the fact that the boat was referred to as a woman and why that matters/ is important. When the story mostly consists of men, the most important “woman” is the boat aka the foundation for them whale men. My thoughts on this are all over the place at the moment and pretty messy so I need to focus on what I’m trying to say about this.
Moby-Dick
ECL 522: Fall 2025. Professor Pressman
It is an interesting fact that boats are always female. It’s not just in this novel. In fact, this novel usually describes the boat by its name, the Pequod, rather than a pronoun. So I might keep thinking a bit more about what you’re actually interested in– about why gender matters or about why this ship matters to you.