The evidence from the passage which best shows Ishmael's circumstances is:
"Again, I always go to sea 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." (paragraph 5)
Explanation:
The above evidence shows that Ishmael was a hired hand in the Pequod, a whaling ship led by captain Ahab. Ahab was obsessed with the whale that had bit off his legs during a previous voyage. Based on the earlier incident, he led his crew to a catastrophic revenge adventure, which claimed the life of all crew members except Ishmael. The plot of this novel is captured in the epic novel titled "Moby D..k," authored by Herman Melville (1851).
