The Importance Of Religion In Moby Dick

Throughout the first chapter of Moby-Dick, a theme of inevitability is brought up time and time again. In a contest of free will and fate, it seems that fate has – and always will – win; this lack of control, though interestingly not viewed by Ishmael as distressing, sets the stage for future events.

    One might say we are presented with two fish stories in looking at Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, a marlin in the former and a whale in the latter.  However, both of these animals are symbolic of the struggle their hunters face to find dignity and meaning in the face of a nihilistic universe in Hemingway and a fatalistic one in Melville.  While both men will be unable to conquer the forces of the universe against them, neither will either man be conquered by them because of their refusal to yield to these insurmountable forces.  However, Santiago gains a measure of peace and understanding about existence from his struggles, while Ahab leaves the

Thee Works Cited      "God, God is against thee, old man; forbear! 'tis an ill voyage! ill begun; ill continued..." (418). Humanity has embarked on a journey. A journey of choice that will lead into the end days; one which will determine mankind's fate and weave the mat of life to completion. Humanity, like Captain Ahab, has chosen to follow the direction of his own desires rather than reason and faith. Refusing to hear the voice of reason, man has seared Starbuck-his conscience and morals-to "a lipless, unfeatured blank" (459). Following the desires of the flesh, he has thrown out the compass and declared himself "lord of the level loadstone" (425). And like Captain Ahab,

When your life revolves around the sea as ours does, you hear stories. Stories of deep sea monsters, mermaids, giant squids right out of a Moby Dick novel, are just some of the tales we’ve heard. Most stories about mysterious creatures we shrug off as ‘not bloody likely’, but others enter the realm of real possibility.

Throughout his novel, Moby Dick, Herman Melville will often devote entire chapters to the thoughts and actions of specific characters. Two specific examples of this type of chapter are Chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, and Chapter 42, The Whiteness of the Whale. The first of these chapters depicts Ahab addressing his crew for the first time in order to convince them to hunt down Moby Dick. The second offers insight to the fear that is brought upon by the mere mention of Moby Dick The significance and effectiveness of each of these chapters are enhanced by Melville’s use of rhetoric and style respectively.

Once a person becomes attached or obsessed to a specific person, place, or even an idea, it is extremely difficult to expel this obsession. Ishmael becomes attached to Moby Dick. He does not execute a single action or take a simple breathe without thinking of this whale. Ishmael’s obsession with this whale is to taken to such an extent that he is willing to venture through extreme obstacles out on the sea just to murder the whale that is responsible for his missing leg. As always, the power of nature overcomes the ignorance of man. Nature does what nature wants. No one gets to tell nature what to do, it is one of the only aspects of life we truly are incapable of controlling. When we hear a hurricane warning, and most sensible people will take precautions, those who do not,

The central religious themes of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Moby Dick reflect the turbulent and changing religious climate of their time. In their use of themes from both traditional Calvinism and modern reform, the syncretic efforts of both of these texts offers a response to the uncertainty and change of the period. However, their uses of these themes are different; while Stowe used a precise focus on a Christian polemic against slavery, Melville intentionally de-centralized his text in a way that asks the reader to look beyond the medium of expression to the truth which lays behind it, but cannot be contained in it.

Humans are desirous of numerous things. Money, power, pleasure, satisfaction, and surprisingly, celebrities are all things that lead to obsession. As people focus into these things, the result is utter and blatant madness, and eventually becomes the destruction of themselves and others. In the novel Misery by Stephen King, the mental instability of Annie Wilkes and the imprisonment of Paul Sheldon shows how obsession can lead to the destruction of others.

Herman Melville’s short story “Benito Cereno” or “The Other Moby Dick” as Greg Grandin, a contributing writer for Mother Jones magazine, refers to it, is a fictionalized account of an encounter that an American ship captain and seal killer/trader by the name of Amasa Delano had in February 1805 in the South Pacific (Grandin). Delano, who was “quick to flog his men,” was “the sort of American sea captain Melville knew well and hated” (Stuckey 271). Delano chronicled his encounter in “A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the northern and southern hemispheres: comprising three voyages around the world, together with a voyage of survey and discovery in the Pacific Ocean and Oriental Islands” (Boston, 1817). Arguably one of Melville’s best works, “Benito Cereno” in all of its ambiguity is more than a fictionalized account of a seafaring vessel and its less than admirable captain, it is a historical reflection of what was happening in the world during the time it was written.

Human civilization can be divided into two on one precise premise; those who live as if they belong to the world, and those who live as if the world belongs to them (the vast majority). In Ishmael by Daniel Quinn these ideas and others are expanded upon to create a philosophical journey in the readers mind.

This is not the first time Ahab has spoken to himself as he often paranoidly talked to himself about what he would do if others tried to hurt him, then proceed to tell himself how crazy he is. These are Ahab’s last words. It’s funny how these are not only his last words, but the first time Ahab said anything with true feeling in the book. Though he may have not killed Moby Dick like he truly wanted, Ahab found the whale again and threw in a few last punches while cursing it and fate before his demise. I feel that, though Ahab did not kill Moby Dick, he was ready to die because he had closure since he found the whale again and was able to throw one final spear and give it his all. Following his death there was silence because the only

A vengeful man, a native, and a man seeking enlightenment board a whaling vessel; this isn’t a joke, this is the United States of America throughout history and the members of the Pequod. Moby Dick is not just a tale about a whaling venture gone awry, it is a metaphor for what America was and is. The Pequod represents the country and government, while the 30 crew members (Melville 430; ch. 126) represents the United State citizens. This would have not been possible to consider in Melville’s time, but it is a true testament to literature being a living text. Melville wasn’t only writing about America in the 1800’s, he was writing about the natures of humanity, and the future of our society.

Stubb decides to give Old Fleece a lecture on religion after waking him to complain about his overcooked whale steak. Not only does Stubb ask Fleece to "preach" to the sharks who are making a considerable din eating the dead whale chained to the ship, but he compares Fleece's inability to "correctly" cook a whale steak to Fleece's un-Christian ways. This passage is an excellent example of the theme of the hypocrisy of religion in Moby Dick.

In the novel, A Moby Dick, Pip is a young African American boy, who has almost no power on the Pequod. Pip only makes a handful of appearances in the novel, which leads the reader to ask: why does Melville include him in this novel? Pip normally serves as an entertainer for the crew and cleans up the ship. However, after being left in the ocean for hours, he forms a special bond with Ahab. Through their time spent together Pip positively affects Captain Ahab, which is why he is included in the novel.

Many have the desire to control the uncontrollable, or change the unchangeable. This idea is shared through many novels and movies; one of those being Herman Melville’s Moby Dick-a narrated voyage of a whaling ship, the Pequod, and its captain, Ahab, whose one desire was to kill the great Sperm Whale, Moby Dick. As his whaling journey continued, still unsuccessful, Ahab’s character began to change. Many adjectives could be used to describe Ahab’s changing character, but three specific ones are as follows: obsessive, conceited, and manipulative. Ahab’s one desire changes him from an obedient captain to a madman.