This weeks reading I found a bit more challenging than the readings prior and I think the main reason for that was the increase of dialogue between new characters. As Ishmael meets new characters and we are introduced to them, their conversations are relayed to us through dialouge, but the way in which they are written, I find a bit hard to read.

Despite that, the part of the reading that I found extremely interesting was essentially the entirety of Chapter 19 The Prophet and the character of Elijah. During his conversation with Ishmael, he says “Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all. ” This quote in particular really stuck with me because of how sort of prophetical, yet vague it is. Elijah acts as if he knows of what is to come in the future for the Pequod, yet at the same time we aren’t fully aware on if he actually does know something that they don’t or if he is just making a guess based on what he knows about the crew. Also throughout this chapter, we get more essentially ‘mythical’ descriptions and warnings about Captain Ahab through the vessel of Elijah. Something that I have really noticed that Herman Melville has done extremely well so far throughout this novel is build up suspense and intrigue for characters that we have yet to meet. If someone is going to be important to the story or to Ishmael later in the story, Melville will drag along their introduction, laying out intrigue through tales from other characters for both Ishmael and us the audience to truly wonder about. The use of a first person narrative through the mind of Ishmael really does help with this because we see him questioning and wondering about characters and in turn we begin to feel the same.

This chapter truly excited me to keep reading because of the intrigue it left of both meeting Captain Ahab and figuring out the fate of the crew of the Pequod. I am very interested to see if Elijah’s prophecies do come true for the crew. Something that was super interesting to me was the fact that religion has been such a massive aspect of the book so far and it is constantly brought up to the audience and to other characters, so the fact that Elijah has a biblical name makes me really wonder if his prophecies and predictions are actually rooted in more of a religious sign and warning for Ishmael and Queequeg rather than just a guess on his part.