What's the Difference between Moby-Dick or The Whale the Book and Moby Dick the Movie?
In the Book |
In the Movie |
Queequeg has a small wooden idol named Yojo whom he worships and carries as a charm. |
Queequeg has no idol. |
Queequeg fasts for an entire day while he and Ishmael are in Nantucket. |
Queequeg doesn't fast.
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Ishmael, the narrator, goes into excruciating detail about his own perceptions and interpretations of the technical and ethereal aspects of whaling. |
This is not shown. |
Ahab has the ship's blacksmith, Perth, forge him a special harpoon blade which he intends to use to cut down Moby Dick. |
Ahab uses regular harpoons.
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Ahab damages his false leg after meeting with Captain Boomer, and has the ship's carpenter make him a new one. |
This does not happen. |
The whale only appears during the finale. |
Moby Dick is sighted several days before the final hunt, managing to escape.
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Ahab claims the doubloon for himself, as he is the one who sights the white whale during the final hunt. |
Ahab gives the doubloon to the first sailor who sighted the white whale. |
The Pequod crew spot and outrun a pirate ship while sailing near southeast Asia. |
This does not happen.
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Starbuck considers shooting Ahab with a musket through the wall of his cabin. |
Starbuck contemplates shooting him on deck, while he talks. |
Queequeg falls ill with a fever and is expected to die for several days. |
Queequeg "senses death is near" and stops everything to wait for it.
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The final hunt for Moby Dick lasts three days. |
It happens in a single day. |
The Pequod encounters several ships on the high seas, trading stories with them and asking for the whereabouts of the white whale. |
The Pequod only encounters the Samuel Enderby, whose captain lost his arm to Moby Dick, and the Rachel, whose captain lost a son to the whale.
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The sailors spot a giant squid, declaring its haunting white frame to be more impacting than that of the whale. |
No giant squid. |
Moby Dick shatters all boats but Ahab's during the final day of the hunt. |
The boats are still afloat after Ahab's demise, and they decide to continue on after Moby Dick.
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Ahab is killed when the rope from his harpoon becomes entangled around his neck like a noose and pulls him underwater after Moby Dick. |
Ahab clings to the side of the whale, stabbing it several times before becoming entangled in the ropes hanging from its side, drowning afterwards. |
Starbuck is reluctant to Ahab's plan throughout the finale. |
Starbuck's final act is to encourage the men to keep attacking Moby Dick even after Ahab's demise.
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