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Examining The Myth Of Narcissus And Its Role In Moby-Dick, Gerald E. Hansen

Student Works

In Moby-Dick's famous opening line, "Call me Ishmael," Melville establishes the creation of identity as one of the core purposes of the narrator and central themes of the subsequent narrative. The narrator does not say whether Ishmael is his real name only that this and the accompanying connotations are the identity by which he wants to be known and perhaps through which he sees himself. In these first three words, Ishmael immediately suggests that he wants to shape and control how he is perceived by himself and others.