mouth,' he likes to take himself off to sea, instead of resorting to 'pistol and ball' and 'knocking people's hats off.' Ishmael presents himself as a stubbornly independent individual who is used to deciding his own fate.He is adventurous, courageous, and resourceful.

In Chapter One, Ishmael demonstrates his keen attention to detail (he is observant), his obvious intelligence, and his love for the sea through his philosophical musings about the psychological benefits of the sea.

...stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region.. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever...And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

Ishmael's self-awareness propels him to wrestle with life's great questions by testing his courage against an ambiguously, unpredictable ocean. It's the only way he knows of to deal with depression. He also tells us that, when he goes to sea, he likes to go as a sailor 'because they make a point of paying me for my trouble, whereas they never pay passengers a single penny that I ever heard of.' Ishmael's fierce independence is circumscribed by his frugal, practical attitude about money and material gain. He doesn't mind being ordered around as a sailor because he would rather be paid than to have to fork over money to be a passenger.

His frugality is demonstrated in his search for an inn in New Bedford, in Chapter Two. He rejects every expensive inn he sees and finally settles on the Spouter Inn, only because it looks like it's falling apart and would probably be cheap.

...the dilapidated little wooden house itself looked as if it might have been carted here from the ruins of some burnt district, and as the swinging sign had a poverty-stricken sort of creak to it, I thought that here was the very spot for cheap lodgings, and the best of pea coffee.

In Chapter Three, Ishmael's adventurous and courageous nature is severely tested when he finds out that he has to share a bed with a strange bedfellow, a harpooner who happens to peddle heads for a living. That Queequeg is a cannibal doesn't help matters; however, the inn owner, Coffin, assures him that Queequeg is a dependable fellow because 'he pays reg'lar.' When Queequeg later brandishes his tomahawk because of his surprise at discovering a strange bedfellow in his room, Ishmael calls frantically for Coffin. Coffin comes running and reassures both men. Upon hearing the inn owner's words, Queequeg displays a side of himself Ishmael doesn't expect to see.

"You gettee in," he added, motioning to me with his tomahawk, and throwing the clothes to one side. He really did this in not only a civil but a really kind and charitable way. I stood looking at him a moment. For all his tattooings he was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal. What's all this fuss I have been making about, thought I to myself—the man's a human being just as I am: he has just as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.

This incident highlights Ishmael's openness, not just to new experiences, but also in his ability to reevaluate the practicality of preconceived notions. In the 19th Century, a harpooner such as Queequeg, who sported tattoos and worshiped idols, would be classed as a primitive savage of sorts. However, Ishmael once again displays his keen sense of observation and tolerance for unconventional experiences when he philosophizes that Queequeg has as much right to be in the inn as he does.

I turned in, and never slept better in my life.

The "grande programme" is predestination. This is mentioned by Ishmael towards the end of paragraph 10 in Chapter 1:

And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grande programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago. It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

At first, Ishmael thinks that destiny, or fate, is the reason he goes on the whaling expedition with Capt. Ahab. But, he later rejects predestination for free will and the existence of evil (here he agrees with Ahab,who perceives a malevolent force in the white whale). Later, he feels that it is all some "practical joke" on man. In the end, he thinks that man is independent of everything and forges his own existence (existential belief) on his own.

While Ishmael is absent from parts of the narratives and digresses with scientific discussion of the whale, he at first links himself with Queequeq and then pairs with himself through much of the narrative. He becomes linked to Captain Ahab in his fatalistic view, but rejects that and reaches a deeper fulfillment with self realization of his own basic feelings. In a sense, he is reborn as he clings to the coffin and the "baptismal" waters of the sea.

With the utterance of the famous first sentence in Moby Dick, Ishmael suggests himself that he will wander through various convictions and metaphysical thoughts as he dwells on predestination, free will, evil, and the existential condition.

According to Christopher S. Durer in Mocking the "Grande Programme," the character Ishmael progresses through four stages of development during the narrative of Moby Dick:

1. Chapters 1-18: Ishmael holds an ambivalent attitude towards this Prorgramme; he half-believes in the Calvinistic predestination of Father Mapple, but has some doubts. 
2. Chapters 19-43: Ishmael begins to lose any belief in this "grande programme" and gravitates towards Ahab's belief in the "pasteboard masks" of Nature there lies an "inscrutable malice."
3. Chapters 44-93: He starts to give this "programme" no credibility, calling the universe "a practical joke."
4. Chapters 94-105: Ishmael rejects the "grande programme" entirely.

1. Whereas in the early chapters of Moby Dick, Ishmael acts primarily as a narrator, in the later chapters, he becomes an active participant of the crew and is central to the tragedy at the end. Nevertheless, Ishmael shows signs of being influenced rather easily as he is initially fearful of the savage harpooner Queequeq with whom he is to room in Nantucket; then the next day, he narrates that they are companions. Ishmael jokes that the harpooner slept with his arm around him, and they are now "married." Nevertheless, Ishmael feels himself apart from others.

2. He remains in conflict with his Presbyterian beliefs, expounded by Captain Mapple. In Chapter 41, in which Captain Ahab unites the crew in the search for Moby Dick, offering a doubloon to whoever first sights the white whale, the harpooners partake of a communion of wine that parodies the Christian ceremony. Swept up in the excitement and unity, Melville's narrator declares, "I, Ishmael, was one of that crew...my oath had been welded with theirs." Nevertheless, Ishmael remains skeptical as in Chapter 47 he comments upon chance that "rules by turns" with necessity, and later he speaks of "the audacious seas" that ignore the "blessed light of the evangelical land." He notes, too, Ahab’s obsession with the whale as far greater than that of the other sailors. When Ahab projects a sense of the presence of evil in the world onto the White Whale, Ishmael observes that this projection is absurd; however, he also begins to give credibility to Ahab's conviction that there is "but a pasteboard mask"; that is that there is an evil force lurking behind creation.

3. In Chapter 49 Ishmael rejects the ideas of Romanticism and comments that there are certain times that life is, as Ahab says, inscrutable. At times it seems to be "a practical joke" on man. Further, in Chapter 72, "The Monkey Rope," Ishmael speaks of his Siamese relationship with Queequeq in the ropes that hold them in place: "Queequeq was my own inseparable twin brother...." Then, in Chapter 83, Ishmael recalls Father Mapples's mention of Jonah and the whale; he realizes from his new study of this mammal that the stomach juices of the whale would destroy a man. This discussion marks his increasing skepticism of religious teachings (the "practical joke.")

4. In the latter chapters, Ishmael feels that Ahab's projection of all evil onto the single creature of Moby Dick is absurd. But, because other cultures have also found malevolent forces in the world, Ishmael hints that the belief in an intelligent and evil presence has credibility enough for him to reject "the grande programme" of the Divine. Instead, a more sinister presence seems to take hold of the world, Ismael concludes.

Finally, Ishmael's camaraderie with the crew ends as Ishmael becomes more independent and breaks from the restrictions of religion. He mentions the grande programme very little after Chapter 94 in which he takes more delight in pure physical activity and socialization with others rather than acting as a crewman. His new perspective of Chapter 94 demonstrates that Ishmael has achieved independence and is no longer dependent upon "the grande programme" of order imposed by Providence.

As some critics note, Melville has taken his narrator out of the bondage of an order imposed by a controlling God and given him existential freedom to choose the direction of his life. With the narrative of Quequeeq, who has transferred the stories of his tattoos onto the coffin, Ishmael need wander no more; he can forge his own existence.

Additional Source:

Durer, Christopher S. "Mocking the 'Grande Programme'": Irony and after in Moby Dick." Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 36.4(1982):249-58. Print.