Herman Melville's story of Moby Dick, by charlotte cook
A wondrous story woven of thick metaphors describing and predicting
what will become of Captain Ahab a tortured man looking for revenge on a white
whale, A whale that had ripped through his face and neck and possibly his entire body. He thinks only of hunting and killing this whale and this is his story of the chase. Biblical names of the characters imbue the story with tension; for instance the narrator's name, Ishmael in the bible refers to the son of a dangerous liaison between Hagar an Egyptian slave handmaiden and Abram the husband of Sarai. Abram is the father of all Israel. The son is born stubborn as a donkey and has a wild spirit. Sarai puts him and his mother out of her home. He wonders the earth alone like Ahab.
Queequeg is a son of a native priest, Elijah, another shipmate in the book refers to the name of a son in the lineage of the people of Israel, and Rachel is the name of the ship that carries Captain Ahab's dead body. Captain Ahab is doomed to strain to win against the odds. It could easily be called against all odds for Ahab knows well in advance it looks all too grim for him and his doomed
crew. The story takes place in the ocean. Water has often been used as a symbol of cleansing and mystery where King Poseidon and Neptune reign.
The characters that surround the mad Captain Ahab are his alter ego Starbucks, and Pip a young boy who has gone mad who is the mirror of Ahab's inner self.
The plot is driven by Ahab's convincing his crew that going after the white whale is a whaling's man true calling and to get them to compete he puts up a prize of a gold ounce. Storms occur that Captain Ahab sleeps through, lightning strikes Captain Ahab's harpoon creating an amazing devilish sight for his crew that mesmerizes them enough to decide to follow their mad Captain to whatever hell he is bound for.
The last three chapters unfold the three prophecies that were told him would occur before his death.
And at the end of the story the ship Rachel carries Ahab's battered body home. The reference in the bible about the name Rachel is: a woman was forced to wait for her husband to work off a debt to marry her older sister before he could work off his debt to marry her and then God bestowed children to her older sister and not her. She was cheated of love like Ahab. The white whale destroys the ship, the Pequod and all hands and the ship go down the turbulent whirlpool created by the uncanny mammal that thinks like a man.