Moby Dick by Herman Melville

This is a fiction book about Captain Ahab’s quest for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant sperm whale that bit off his leg on his ship’s previous voyage.

Synopsis:

This book is narrated by Ishmael. He goes to sea because he craved adventure, and travels from Manhattan to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Ishmael shares a bed with Queequeg, a tattooed cannibal Polynesian harpooner and forms a bond and close friendship with him. Ahab, captain of the ship Pequod, considers Moby Dick the embodiment of evil in the world and believes it is his duty to destroy him. Moby Dick bit off his leg on the previous voyage of his ship.

On the third and final day of the hunt for Moby Dick, Ahab spots Moby Dick and Moby Dick destroys two boats as well as the Pequod, tossing the men into the sea. Ishmael is unable to return to the boat and left behind in the water. Moby Dick returns within a few yards of the boat, and Ahab throws a harpoon trying to kill the whale, but the line tangles and loops around Ahab’s neck.

Moby Dick swims away and Ahab is swept away with him out of sight. Queequeg’s coffin rises to the surface. Ishmael floats on it for a day or two until another boat, the Rachel, rescues him.

Review:
I personally found Moby Dick to be very monotonous and droning for a few reasons. One reason is the old-style English language which I found to be very challenging. Also, although I enjoy descriptive language and adjectives, I felt that the author went a bit overboard with utilizing these adjectives and took his time in getting to the main point.

However, I did find a few themes in Moby Dick. Moby Dick, the white whale, is an allegory for God because he opposes free will, and he cannot be defeated. Some other themes include limits of human knowledge, references to fate, and the exploitation of the whaling industry.

“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.”
“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.”
“He saw God’s foot upon the trendle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore, his shipmates called him mad. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.”