Moby-Dick may be America’s greatest novel.

Its famous first sentence is "Call me Ishmael." That does not mean Ishmael is the narrator's name--no, he does not declare, "My name is Ishmael." He instead encourages readers to "call" him by that name (such odd wording suggests that Ishmael is NOT his name).

Genesis 16:12 helps us understand why Melville picked this name (or non-name) for the narrator: "He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."

Ishmael was the first son of Abraham. His mother was Hagar, a slave belonging to Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Sarah could not conceive a child, so Sarah urged Hagar and Abraham to have a child together.

Genesis 25:12-18 = And this is the lineage of Ishmael, son of Abraham, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's slave-girl, bore to Abraham.

And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael according to their lineage: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, Hadad…


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Moby-Dick’s first sentence "Call me Ishmael” Genesis 25:12 (Ishmael is Abraham’s 1st son--"wild")