In my last post, I discussed the implications of Captain Ahab as a fallen priest, leading his flock along the path to perdition.\u00a0 Yet there is another perspective on this topic that bears acknowledgement: Moby Dick is not a false idol, but actually God. His destruction represents not God\u2019s wrath against those who have fallen from his grace and sinned, but against those his defy his power.<\/p>\n
In this reading, a thread that I have consistently followed through my reading drastically changes: Ahab is no longer necessarily an antagonist; Moby Dick\u2014God\u2014is the only truly malicious character.\u00a0 Moby Dick in this reading is the uncaring, even cruel God.\u00a0 He is the God that Poe wrote of, and that of Flannery O\u2019Connor.\u00a0 Ahab is the only character that attempts to rail against the almighty power.<\/p>\n
So how does this reading work?\u00a0 Moby Dick is, whether or not you call it God, a manifestation of an all powerful force, and one that is malicious, or simply does not care for humanity and antagonizes them in its pursuit of some other goal.\u00a0 With this being the case, Ahab is a lone man trying to defy the destiny that it seems he has been dealt; he attempts to destroy the power that took his leg and has scarred not only his body but also his soul. \u00a0He is the one of the crew who has suffered most in this world, and therefore seeks revenge on the almighty.\u00a0 Does this mean he is sane?\u00a0 No. Trying to kill a God is usually reserved for the mad.\u00a0 Yet he is not simply crazy, he is a man attempting a glorious and justified fight against an insurmountable force.<\/p>\n
This reading also drastically changes the view of Starbuck that I have maintained.\u00a0 Throughout this novel, I have seen the first mate as a conflicted heroic figure.\u00a0 In this reading, he is in fact the opposite: a cowed, subservient man who is frightened of battling against an indestructible force, no matter how malevolent it is.\u00a0 He simply is trying to live his life as he always has, in constant fear and constant supplication.\u00a0 He truly is the epitomic God-fearing man.<\/p>\n
This reading also makes Ishmael a much more fascinating character.\u00a0 His conflict becomes more interesting as he is not simply deciding whether the pursuit of his captain\u2019s revenge is justified, but if the entire pursuit is right.\u00a0 Is it right to fight God, even if it does seem wicked.\u00a0 Is it right to fight an evil force if one is destined to fail?\u00a0 Is it worth the good fight, if the good fight is doomed?\u00a0 Ishmael\u2019s dilemma is, in the anti-transcendentalist reading, far greater.\u00a0 It becomes a question of faith and righteousness; of fear and of supplication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my last post, I discussed the implications of Captain Ahab as a fallen priest, leading his flock along the path to perdition.\u00a0 Yet there is another perspective on this topic that bears acknowledgement: Moby Dick is not a false idol, but actually God. His destruction represents not God\u2019s wrath against those who have fallen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,76],"tags":[336,208],"class_list":["post-1465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sources-or-literary-allusions","category-religion","tag-antitranscendentalism","tag-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}