Review: "Moby Dick"

 

Moby Dick by Herman Melville is one of those books you have heard of – you know something about – but perhaps you have never read it.  I knew it began, “Call me Ishmael.”  It had to do with Captain Ahab chasing the White Whale, Moby Dick, who had stolen the captain’s leg.

But what is it about?  One thing to note is that it is difficult to understand Melville without some knowledge of the Bible and Shakespeare.  Even using a text with footnotes to draw your attention to the references – they serve as an unwelcome intrusion to the flow of the novel.  Beginning with the first sentence – who was Ishmael?  Does it matter that he is one of the two divisions of all of humanity biblically?

A major theme running through the book is that bad things happen – how ought we respond to them?  Whether losing limbs to the whale or serving under the maniacal Ahab, bad things happen, and they must be faced.  But how? 

Melville gives a number of options:

The minister says that there are bad things, but God will bring something better in the end.

Ishmael says that there are bad things and there’s nothing to do about it, so push ahead stoically.

The captain who lost two limbs says that there are bad things, but you have to be thankful for all the good things in your life.

Ahab says there are bad things, and he rages against the thought and that they should happen to him.

And then there’s the elephant in the room:  who or what is Moby Dick?

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com].