How to Hook the Reader with 3 Words

“Call Me Ishmael.”

In only three words, opening the novel Moby Dick, author Herman Melville hooks us. It is a masterpiece of crafted literary efficiency.

Here’s why:

The speaker seems to be hiding his true identity. Why?

At the same time, he is hinting to us he is using a cover-up. Why is he giving that away?

Why is he making us a confidant going forward on a long and complicated quest?

Why only a partial confidant?

The only clue he gives us is the choice of his name.

It points us toward the Bible. Melville studied the Old Testament as he wrestled with the problems of good and evil. Ishmael was the oldest son of Abraham. Ishmael’s life was complicated and challenged, as his birth mother was not Abraham’s wife, thought sterile at the time, but a surrogate. The two women later clashed, and Ishmael was sent away, but God protected Ishmael in the wilderness.

In the novel, Ishmael also survives in the mad wilderness of Captain Queeg, the obsessed captain of the sailing vessel Ishmael is joining.

The Biblical Ishmael’s story is considered an important lesson, and perhaps Melville hoped his novel would be as significant.