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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page paper which examines how the whale represents the mystery of life and everything it encompasses. No additional sources are used.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGmobysym.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
and Captain Ahab. The whale seems to permeate every page of the text and constantly inhabit the minds of its pursuers, and yet there is never a consensus as
to what it symbolizes. Perhaps it is because the whale represents not a single entity but the entire life experience. Human beings are constantly pondering the meaning of
life and the many mysteries that no great mind has yet to unravel. Nevertheless, there is an insatiable longing to know Gods plan for human existence and a need
to understand why life is often cruel and unfair. Then, there is the fine line between appearances and reality, the constraints on behavior imposed by the fear of death
or bodily harm, and the ultimate unknown - death - to contemplate. Throughout Moby Dick, the whale symbolizes mans quest to reveal the secrets of life in order to
fully appreciate the natural order of the universe and his place in it. In the opening chapter, young sailor Ishmael explains his overwhelming desire to take a whaling voyage: "Chief
among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas
where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale; these, with all the attending marvels of a thousand Patagonian sights and sounds, helped to sway me
to my wish. With other men, perhaps, such things would not have been inducements; but as for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote" (Melville
6). Like the ancient Greek philosophers, Ishmael is every man who seeks to know that which is unknowable. Why does man court danger when he cherishes life?
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