The novel begins with the famous statement by the book's narrator. "Call me Ishmael". He has the habit of going to sea whenever he begins to grow "hazy about the eyes." He goes to sea as a laborer, not as a Commodore, a Captain or a Cook, but as a simple sailor. He does so because he may be paid and because it affords him wholesome exercise and pure sea air. It is said that …showed first 75 words of 2286 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2286 total…in chapter 16, the appraisal of Ahab from Peleg in which he designates him as an ungodly man. (Melville. 178). The suggestion that Ahab's quest for Moby Dick is an act of defiance toward God assuming that Ahab is all-powerful first occurs before Ahab is even introduced during Father Mapple's sermon. The lesson of the sermon is to warn against he blasphemous idea that a ship can carry a man into regions where God does not reign.