Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael is a fictional character in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" (1851). Ishmael, the only surviving crewmember of the "Pequod", is the narrator of the book. His importance relies on his role as narrator; as a character, he is only a minor participant in the action and the main protagonist is Captain Ahab. The Biblical name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts. Because he was the first person narrator, most of the criticism of "Moby-Dick" either confused Ishmael with the author himself or overlooked him. From the mid-twentieth century onward, critics distinguished Ishmael from Melville, establishing the
Ishmael son of Nethaniah earlier treatment of the royal household (Jeremiah 39:6). Robert Carroll describes the assassination as ‘armed revolt against Babylonian authority and the execution of a collaborationist’, noting also, however, that the tale hints at a residual factionalism that had bedevilled Judah in the period before the Babylonian invasion. However, wider political machinations also seem to have played a part. Jeremiah (though not II Kings) makes clear that Ishmael has been sent by king Baalis of the neighbouring kingdom of Ammon to kill Gedaliah. The full name of the Ammonite king Baalis (Ba‘alyiša‘, ‘Baal is salvation’) has been attested for the first