By David Bradshaw
REVENGE OF THE WHALE
NATHANIEL PHILBRICK
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He has been writing ever since the early
1980s
He was bourn 1956 in Boston Mass.
He went to Brown University to achieve his
bachelors degree in English.
He later attended Duke University and
achieved his Masters in American Literature.
He got married to Melissa DouthartPhilbrick
and they have two grown children Jennie and
Ethan.
He first worked as a freelancer and later
moved to Nantucket in 1986 where he
became interested in the islands history and
wrote “Away off Shore”.
In 2000 he published In The Heart of the Sea
followed by Sea of Glory, in 2003, and
Mayflower. And he is now working on a book
about the Battle of Little Big Horn.
For almost all of his books he has won an
award or been a finalist for an award.
PROTAGONIST
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Pretty much the protagonist through the whole
book is the captain George Pollard. Because
the captain ended up having to save all the
other men from starvation, insanity, and just
giving up through there whole journey. Even
though he was not able to save all of them he
did do all that he could to save as many as he
could.
ANTAGONIST
In the book the whale is the main antagonist
because it is the thing that makes them have to
abandon there ship by smashing a huge hole in
it.
 But the crew is somewhat an antagonist
because are the ones that led a lot of the men
to certain death by taking the long way to land
rather then taking a risk on some islands they
thought were inhabited by cannibals.
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FAVORITE CHARACTER
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My favorite character is defiantly the captain
(George Pollard), because it takes so much
courage and ability to think about nothing but
others to be able to lead men that are starving
and almost going insane and giving up, when
you are also experiencing the same things as
them.
LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTER
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My least favorite character is Charles Ramsdell,
because he shot his best friend (Owen Coffin)
for food, not just other food, but he shot him to
use him as the food. This happened after
casting lots to see who would be shot for food
and who would be the executor.
RISING ACTION
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The rising action in this book is when they are
on the western side of South America and they
are not catching to many whales. So they
decide to go to an unknown whaling ground a
few thousand miles off the coast of Chile.
EXPOSITION
The main characters are George Pollard, Owen
Chase, and Mathew Joy. But all of the ships
crew play a fairly big part in the story. The
setting introduced is a harbor in Nantucket and
aboard the ship the Essex and the main
concept is stated many times and is about
whaling.
 The time in witch this takes place in the the
1820s
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CLIMAX
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The climax in this story happens after they have gone
into uncharted waters that are said to have a lot more
whales. Where they find many whales and set out to
catch and kill them, but one of the 3 boats gets
damaged in the process so they return to the ship to fix
it. Then the weirdest thing happened when they saw a
massive sperm whale with scars on its head begin to
charge at the boat. The first blow just rattled the boat a
bit, but the large whale went out and came back for a
second try and punctured the ships side witch made the
boat start to fill with water. The whale was never seen
again.
FALLING ACTION
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This is when all of the crew are in the three small 25
foot whale boats. They have left the wreck of the whale
ship Essex and are headed toward the coast of South
America, they were almost 5000 miles away. Then as
they started to get closer the food started to deplete and
they started to get weaker. They were only allowed a few
ounces of hard tack and a half pint of water to keep
them alive. All hope seemed lost but they stumbled
across a small island where they were able to find a
water source to fill there barrels and a small amount of
animal life for food. They left 3 people on this island who
wanted to stay and the rest headed for South America.
RESOLUTION
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This occurs after Pollard, Chase, and Joy’s boats
were all separated in a storm. Luckily Pollard and
Chase had some navigation equipment but joys
only hope was to find one of the two boats,
otherwise he would be stranded. So the two boats
with navigational equipment headed east to the
coast. After 93 days in the boats Pollards boat was
found just a few hundred miles off the coast of
Chile on February 23 1820, and Chases boat was
found off the coast of Masafurea island on
February 18 1820.
TIME PERIOD
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This book takes place in the early 1800s, this is
important because it shows that there is hardy
any technology and not much is known about
the entire world even little is known about the
known world and that there is a lot of
unexplored land and water masses. All of that
plays a large role in the book.
PLACE
This story takes place on a whale ship from
Nantucket.
 It also takes place a long ways north west off
the coast of South America.
 Then after all the bad things happen it takes
place on three 25 foot whale boats where
things could not get any worse.
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THEMES
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2.
3.
The only way to save yourself and others is to
be totally selfless.
Whaling can be a very dangerous, gruesome
and brutal way to have a way of life that
revolves around oil lamp light and things
made from whale fat.
Sometimes the thing that seems worst at the
time will end up being better in the end.
BOOK RATING
Personally I would give the book an 8 out of 10
because it was in all a very well written book, but
at times it was a little bit jumpy from one persons
point of view to another's and had some boring
useless parts throughout it.
 I also thought it was very interesting and
informative to how brutal they were to whales back
then. I also liked how descriptive they were about
how the times were in the whale boats and how
starvation is as terrible as it is and all the things
that came with low food and water intake.
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SOCIAL ISSUE
The social issue I chose to study, that had a lot to do with this book and has
a lot to do with people today, is important LEADERS and LEADERSHIP in
post modern to modern times .
WHY I CHOSE THIS SOCIAL ISSUE
I chose to do this social topic because without
leaders, modern and old, we would not be where
we are today.
 Leaders have a very large effect on so many things
in this world, wither it be someone on a boat 5000
miles away from land with a small amount of food
and water and has to lead his men to survive, or
wither it be someone who puts there life out there
to have equal rights or to stop some kind of wrong
doing to a group of people , or all people in
general.
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FAMOUS LEADERS AND THERE
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
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He was a pastor of a Baptist church.
He was the leader of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. Which in
the time it took to boil down and be resolved his house was bombed
and he was arrested.
He was the founder of the “Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, which was a group of people who were trying to harness
the moral authority of getting black people all there freedoms and
equal rights.
He was the man who gave an inspiring speech to thousands of
people before the march on Washington.
He was probably the most influential leader to this date that caused
the most to be done for a certain minority group.
He was assassinated April 4th, 1968, which ended his amazing
leadership rampage that took his people from being shunned to
being almost accepted equal by law.
ADOLF HITLER
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He was a very accomplished leader, that was able to do what
he told the people he would do.
But he had a very sick purpose behind what he was doing.
He is considered a great leader because he was able to bring
Germany out of a post World War 1 depression. And even
though what he was trying to accomplish he was able to
convince millions of people that they were better then Jews
and that they were the supreme beings of the world and was
able to conquer most of Europe.
Even though what he was doing is by all means ethically
wrong he was able to lead many people to what they thought
was a brighter future.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
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He was the first president of the great country we all live in known as
the USA.
He is known as a great leader because he was the man that virtually
kept the USA a country by fighting of the British in the American
Revolution.
He was one who was able to be persuasive and get what he wanted
and he was someone who wanted to make this country great and
large.
He was also a man that only wanted to do things that were absolutely
necessary for the countries survival and for the good of the people.
He was one of the original founders of the constitution and the bill of
rights which is the law of the land and cherished today.
GEORGE POLLARD, JR.
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He was the captain of the ship the Essex which was the boat
in the book I read.
He went against all odds and lead most of his crew to safety.
He experienced the sight of death, near starvation, and
cannibalism, but he was still able to captain and keep
command of his crew while they were traveling to the coast
of Chile even though they almost had no hope of anything.
His optimism and ability to lead and do all that is necessary
to keep his men alive makes him a great leader, even though
it did not affect many people it still was something no one
would want to experience.
NELSON MANDELA
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He was the president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
He was the first president there to be elected by a
democratic election.
He served 27 years in prison for sabotage and other crimes
while he lead the movement against apartheid.
He lead the country to multi-racial democracy in South
Africa.
He joined forces with the captain of there rugby team to
unite the country through sport and supported and helped
lead to team to the 1995 world cup. Which in a large since
helped unite the people in the country.
The movie Invictus is based off what he did and was trying to
do for the people of South Africa.
LEADERSHIP YOUTUBE VIDEO
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Ovkye6la
c
LEADERS BACK WHEN AND NOW
Good leaders back in the day were hard to come
upon because they seemed to be told everything
they had to do, they were very lacking in the ability
to take a stand they didn’t want to be out of the
ordinary.
 Now leaders seem to have been given the weight
to carry and understand that it is there job the get
people to follow and do the right thing.
 Though there are still great and bad leaders in
both times It seems that the understanding for the
duty seemed to of changed a bit.
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ATTRIBUTES OF A GOOD LEADER
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11.
They build excellence within what they are doing
A strong person or leader can be a good or bad leader depending on there
type of character. For example Adolf Hitler was a strong leader but had a
bad character and purpose about him. But George Washington was a
strong leader with a good character he was trying to accomplish
something that would help many people.
A good leader is trust worthy
A good leader is ethical and has a strong vision for the future.
Inspiring
Intelligent
Fair minded
Broad minded
Courageous
Strait forward
Imaginative
1.
Warren Benis
SONG
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quZTdeUgiV
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LEADERSHIP POEM
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THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
by Billy Rose
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There's a graveyard near the White
House
Where the Unknown Soldier lies,
And the flowers there are sprinkled
With the tears from mother's eyes. I stood there not so long ago
With roses for the brave,
And suddenly I heard a voice
Speak from out the grave:
"I am the Unknown Soldier,
The spirit voice began
"And I think I have the right
To ask some questions man to man.
"Are my buddies taken care of?
Was their victory so sweet?
Is that big reward you offered
Selling pencils on the street?
"Did they really win the freedom
They battled to achieve?
Do you still respect that Croix de Guerre
Above that empty sleeve?
"Does a gold star in the window
Now mean anything at all?
I wonder how my old girl feels
When she hears a bugle call. "And that baby who sang
Hello, Central, give me no man
Can they replace her daddy
With a military band?
"I wonder if the profiteers
Have satisfied their greed?
I wonder if a soldier's mother
Ever is in need?
"I wonder if the kings, who planned it all
Are really satisfied?
They played their game of checkers
And eleven million died.
"I am the Unknown Soldier
And maybe I died in vain,
But if I were alive and my country called,
I'd do it all over again.
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WORK SITED
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"Merriam Websters Collegiate Dictionary." Merriam Websters
Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield Mass.: Merriam Webster
Inc., 1993. 661-662.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. "Revenge of the Whale." Philbrick,
Nathaniel. Revenge of the Whale. New York: G.P. Putnams
sons, 2002. 162.
Warren Bennis, Ph.D. NwLink. 28th February 2010
<http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadchr.html>.
Wikipedia. Famous People. March 2002. 28th February
2010
<http://www.famouspeople.com/famous_biographies/Geor
ge_Washington.htm>.