Whale Symbol Essay -- Literary Analysis, Moby Dick

There are many views on the typeism of the albumen heavyweight in Melvilles book, Moby Dick. Melville regarded the symbol as, what William Gleim describes, a means of both revelation and concealment(402). The symbol of the white whale lends itself easily to this concept. To Ahab, the whale represents the wickedness of constitution. To Starbuck, it is a product. To Ishmael, however, it is fearful and mysterious(Melville, 6). It rouses his curiosity, nevertheless he recognizes it as a thing secluded. It is an arouse idea(Melville, 6) an idea which is larger than his consciousness. Its suggestions surpass his conscious understanding and own him to feel significance even if he cant write out it.Moby Dick is literally an albino spermatozoan whale. In his categorization of all whales, Melville regards the sperm whale as the primate He is, without a doubt, the largest inhabitant of the testicle the nigh formidable of all whales to encounter and lastly, by far the most valuable i n commerce(Melville, 133). The whiteness of the whale enhances this communication in that it has regal associations, a certain royal pre-eminence in this hue(Melville, 184). The white whale, therefore, stands, primarily, as, what Gleim states, the ideal representation of his species(406). He is a sign of excellence to the come out of nature. To Ishmael, however, the whiteness of the whale has not solitary(prenominal) dignified associations, but withal terrible ones. The whiteness signifies a natural beauty, but it also signifies, by its indefiniteness(Melville, 192), the immensity of the universe. For all aboard the Pequod, their voyage is one of reckon for the ultimate truth of experience. What begins as a voyage in wait of the product of whale oil, ends with the discovery of th... ...The white whale represents not only the excellence of creation but also the mystery of creation. William Sedgwick states, He is large of the massive inertia in things, and of the blind beauty a nd violence of nature--all that treat or twists or betrays or otherwise does outrage to mans purpose(98). As a significant form in nature, then, the shape of the white whale is the mask of dumb blankness(Melville, 192). It contains the heartless voids (Melville, 192). of the universe and conceals this abyss. Its mystery is its perplexing nature its indifference to kindly associations and joint stock(Melville, 185) theories. Nature, however, is indifferent, and Moby Dick is the symbol of this indifference. musical composition can force perceptions of beauty upon nature and extract commodity from it, but the white whale represents the absolute negation of these efforts.