All 11 Uses of
narrate
in
Moby Dick
- While narrating these things, every time Queequeg received the tomahawk from me, he flourished the hatchet-side of it over the sleeper's head.†
Chpt 19-21 *
- So that here, in the real living experience of living men, the prodigies related in old times of the inland Strello mountain in Portugal (near whose top there was said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the surface); and that still more wonderful story of the Arethusa fountain near Syracuse (whose waters were believed to have come from the Holy Land by an underground passage); these fabulous narrations are almost fully equalled by the realities of the whalemen.†
Chpt 40-42
- Secondly: People ashore have indeed some indefinite idea that a whale is an enormous creature of enormous power; but I have ever found that when narrating to them some specific example of this two-fold enormousness, they have significantly complimented me upon my facetiousness; when, I declare upon my soul, I had no more idea of being facetious than Moses, when he wrote the history of the plagues of Egypt.†
Chpt 43-45
- This latter circumstance, with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears of Captain Ahab or his mates.†
Chpt 52-54
- Interweaving in its proper place this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record.†
Chpt 52-54
- For my humor's sake, I shall preserve the style in which I once narrated it at Lima, to a lounging circle of my Spanish friends, one saint's eve, smoking upon the thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn.†
Chpt 52-54
- The manner in which the Bishop describes it, as alternately rising and sinking, with some other particulars he narrates, in all this the two correspond.†
Chpt 58-60
- All these particulars are faithfully narrated here, as they will not fail to elucidate several most important, however intricate passages, in scenes hereafter to be painted.†
Chpt 61-63
- Mayhew having concluded his narration, Ahab put such questions to him, that the stranger captain could not forbear inquiring whether he intended to hunt the White Whale, if opportunity should offer.†
Chpt 70-72
- As they narrated to each other their unholy adventures, their tales of terror told in words of mirth; as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them, like the flames from the furnace; as to and fro, in their front, the harpooneers wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers; as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and…†
Chpt 94-96
- Ere now it has been related how Ahab was wont to pace his quarter-deck, taking regular turns at either limit, the binnacle and mainmast; but in the multiplicity of other things requiring narration it has not been added how that sometimes in these walks, when most plunged in his mood, he was wont to pause in turn at each spot, and stand there strangely eyeing the particular object before him.†
Chpt 97-99
Definition:
-
(narrate) to tell a story-possibly as the main voice in a documentary; or a character who speaks to the audience in a performanceThe specific meaning of narrate depends on context. For example:
- "She narrated her story with tears in her eyes." -- told a story
- "Her diary chillingly narrates her descent into madness." -- tells a story in writing
- "Morgan Freeman narrated the documentary which features historic news reports and interviews." -- was the voice that tells a story while tying the scenes of a documentary together
- "The character who plays the Stage Director in Our Town also narrates for the audience." -- when an actor in a play, movie, or other performance helps to tell the story by talking directly to the audience (breaking the imaginary barrier between the performers and the audience)