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Study Guide
Bibliography
Course Hero. "In the Heart of the Sea Study Guide." Course Hero. 14 Dec. 2017. Web. 7 May 2021. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/In-the-Heart-of-the-Sea/>.
In text
(Course Hero)
Bibliography
Course Hero. (2017, December 14). In the Heart of the Sea Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved May 7, 2021, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/In-the-Heart-of-the-Sea/
In text
(Course Hero, 2017)
Bibliography
Course Hero. "In the Heart of the Sea Study Guide." December 14, 2017. Accessed May 7, 2021. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/In-the-Heart-of-the-Sea/.
Footnote
Course Hero, "In the Heart of the Sea Study Guide," December 14, 2017, accessed May 7, 2021, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/In-the-Heart-of-the-Sea/.
Nathaniel Philbrick
2000
Nonfiction
History
Nathaniel Philbrick uses a variety of sources to provide an updated version of the famous tale of regarding the wreck of the Essex, details of which found their way into American writer Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). The definitive account for many years was written by first mate Owen Chase. A work of scholarship by Thomas Heffernan, Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex, appeared in 1981. But a new account surfaced and was published in 1984, written by the ship's cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson. Philbrick uses a novelistic approach to the material and makes liberal use of both Chase's and Nickerson's accounts to provide the most complete picture yet of this haunting story that serves as both a testament to human endurance and a cautionary tale of hubris.
The narration of In the Heart of the Sea is written in third person but cites excerpts from first-person accounts of the disaster of the whaleship Essex written by first mate Owen Chase, cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, and others.
The title, In the Heart of the Sea, references a passage from Exodus (15:8) in the Hebrew Bible, in which God parts the waters of the sea for the Israelites as they flee Egypt: "By the blast of thy nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea." The Biblical reference is biting, however, since God seems to be absent during the plight of the Quaker whalemen, who find themselves stranded on the sea, far from home, with no whisper of divine help. The subtitle, The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, refers to the tragedy and its terrible aftermath of starvation, death, and finally cannibalism, as survivors in the boats fight to stay alive.
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