From a review:"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last." This is destined to be remembered as one of the most-recognized first sentences in literature--along with "Call me Ishmael." Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe with a transcendent heroine at its center who will be every bit as memorable as Captain Ahab.Una Spenser's marriage to Captain Ahab is certainly a crucial element in the narrative of Ahab's Wife, but the story covers vastly more territory. After a spellbinding opening scene, the tale flashes back to Una's childhood in Kentucky; her idyllic adolescence with her aunt and uncle's family at a lighthouse near New Bedford; her adventures disguised as a cabin boy on a whaling ship; her first marriage to a fellow survivor who descends into violent madness; courtship and marriage to Ahab; life as mother and a rich captain's wife in Nantucket; involvement with Frederick Douglass; and a man who is in Nantucket researching his novel about his adventures on her ex-husband's ship.
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In moving forward to our discussion, we obviously thought of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. None of us had read that book, though a few had begun it. Some had even heard about characters, themes, or chapters that piqued our personal interest. To that end, here are two chapters that we have been told are particularly good.
Chapter 41 Moby Dick. ISHMAEL admits that as "one of that crew", he swore his oath to ... On one defining occasion, a Nantucket captain named Ahab, not about to suffer http://www.melville.org/
Chapter 42: http://www.literaturepage.com/
Moby-Dick Chapter 42 Recap: The Whiteness of the Whale Summary http://www.shmoop.com/moby-
Entire book of Moby Dick online: http://www.literaturepage.com/
While we didn’t go question by question, we did refer to them and some of our discussion could be categorized under particular questions, so that’s how this summary is organized.
1. Ahab's Wife takes place in the early nineteenth century. In what ways is Una's story a product of the times in which she lives? In what ways are her experiences timeless?
The idea of an “idyllic childhood” came up. Is it how we think of that time? Or is it that her experiences are timeless? We don’t know, but she certainly had the freedom to play, explore, and be outside with nature.
2. Early on in Una's life, her mother instructs her, "Accept the world, Una. It is what it is" (p. 29). Does she?
Una seems to be able to deal with changes easily (more easily than the average person). When her husband leaves her, she lets him go. When her next husband dies, she moves on. Does that mean she accepts the world as it is? Maybe.
3. In many ways, Ahab's Wife is a spiritual journey. What are the forces that guide Una? What is her notion of her place in the universe and how does it evolve over the course of her lifetime?
It’s interesting to note that we did not talk a lot about the spiritual journey. It doesn’t seem to be the thing that struck us in this book.
4. Una writes, "Let me assure you and tell you that I know you, even something of your pain and joy, for you are much like me. The contract of writing and reading requires that we know each other. Did you know that I try on your mask from time to time? I become a reader, too" (p. 148). Several times throughout this book, Una addresses the reader directly. What is the effect of this interchange? How do you participate and become a character in this novel?
Una was both “people smart” and “book smart.” By addressing the reader, she could have a side/inside conversation with us and analyze her situations.
5. Discuss Una's relationship to the sea.
Una had great observational skills, especially of nature. She climbed the lighthouse as a child and, later, the rigging of the whaling ship. She lived near the ocean, then on the ocean, and eventually married a man of the ocean (twice, two different men). She participated in the killing of whales, creatures or the ocean, and then the ocean almost killed her. It also taught her to survive.
6. At the most painful time in her life, when she has lost her child and her mother, Una befriends Susan. Why is this relationship so important to Una? What is it that Susan teaches her? Compare and contrast their friendship to Una's friendship with Margaret Fuller.
7. How do you react to Una's cannibalism? Was she justified in doing what she does to survive? Is Giles more culpable because he himself makes the decision and executes the other shipmates? Or is he the most courageous of all because he takes it on himself to make a terrible decision and save those he loved?
Since Una has seen a whale killed and butchered, is this divine retribution? She now kills and butchers fellow humans.
8. Throughout Ahab's Wife, Una makes reference to the works of great writers such as William Shakespeare, John Keats, and Homer. What is the effect of drawing on all these other books? How does it enhance, deepen, and expand Ahab's Wife?
Ahab seems to be consumed with revenge and has an urgency to chase the whale. Una has patience to wait for him.
9. How does Una reconcile "the inevitable animal within" (p. 256) with her spiritual aspirations?
10. Why do you think that three out of Una's four loves (Giles, Kit, and Ahab) go mad? Is this merely coincidence?)
It seems that Una believes in there is a duty to make each other happy, otherwise take one day at a time. It’s interesting that her loves go mad, perhaps she has to deal with her own madness?
11. Throughout her life, Una explores the art of sewing. Although Maria Mitchell considers sewing to be an act and a skill that confines rather than liberates women, at one point Una supports herself with a needle and thread. Discuss the numerous ways in which images of mending, binding, and sewing inform the telling of this novel.
12. When Una is looking for icebergs on Ahab's ship, she returns his trust "with silence on the subject of a white whale and all his massive innocence" (p. 280). Has she betrayed Ahab? Why does she see the whale as innocent? After Ahab loses his leg and then his life, do you think she continues to see Moby-Dick as innocent?
The chapters of Moby Dick (referred to above) describe whiteness as “evil.” It’s interesting to note that Una sees the white whale as innocent, probably since she has already seen a whale killed and butchered. For her, the whale was the victim and not able to defend itself. When the whale does ram the ship and take Ahab’s leg, it is being a whale in it’s own territory; the ocean’s waters. Is that any different than what she had to do to survive on the ocean?
13. "Beware the treachery of words, Mrs. Sparrow. They mean one thing to one person and the opposite to another" (p. 297), Ahab tells Una. Why do you think Una finally finds her vocation to be working with words?
14. "Wondering what Margaret Fuller would say to such a distinction between spiritual and moral matters, I asked the judge if he thought there was a difference" (p. 383). Do you think there is a difference?
Some of us were distracted by the non-fictional characters. We know the people, like Fuller, and wanted them to interact in ways that were true to their real experiences. Una is fictional, so she could never have interacted with Fuller. That bugged us.
15. Una's narrative plunges back in time, leaps ahead, and loops over itself again. Different sections are told through other characters' perspectives and through their letters. How does the narrative structure itself enact some of Una's beliefs about the world?
16. The alternate title of this book is The Star-Gazer. Why do you think Ms. Naslund chose to have an alternate title at all? What meanings does it hold?
Questions from: http://www.readinggroupguides.
