The word of Herman Melville's book is easily identified as Leviathan,
which is basically a sea monster, often a whale or crocodile, derived from the
bible. In fact, biblical symbolism throughout this epic occurs regularly in the
form of character names, actions, prophecies and of course Moby Dick himself.
“Call me Ishmael”…is the famous first sentence of this novel – words that I first learned from the movie
Matilda. This is a sentence to enlist curiosity from the reader. We never learn
whether or not this is really Ishmael’s name or if we should just “call” him
that. Regardless, Ishmael led me to some fairly disappointing and annoyingly
long chapters about whales, their length, their facial features etc. Ishmael
never comes to understand the whale, leaving it to be mysterious and mystic for
the reader. This inconclusive study allows Herman Melville to allude to Moby
Dick being the wrath of god. In the end, this inconclusive study makes for a
dry read. Reading about people killing whales simply to get oil etc is not my
idea of fun.
In lieu of this novel I have decided to post a few whale
videos to help you understand why I did not enjoy reading about individuals
stabbing whales.
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