Herman Melville; Purveyor of Truth

 Herman Melville is considered a reverend of truth. His natural inquiries of the world arrayed themselves throughout the pages of Moby Dick, and ironically as Melville continued his search of his place in the universe, he encouraged America’s understanding of itself without his knowledge. Melville explores the realism of his character Captain Ahab, and the ominous shade of the whale, Moby Dick, to explore the truths of our universe.

 Captain Ahab is a peculiar, visceral character… almost wretched in his action… yet it’d be difficult to not follow him in his cause of revenge for Moby Dick taking Ahab’s leg for its own. Many of us would be on the side of Starbuck, considering assassination, verbalizing discontent with the rapture of Ahab, but in the end, looking up at his God, Starbuck follows the same fate as the rest of the crew. Captain Ahab becomes a sort of anti-hero throughout the story. We’re in a time where our western society increasingly reveres celebrities and superheroes more than the many denominations of Jesus Christ. However, there is a common theme, and that is the larger-than-life aspect that our eyes gleam at the thought of being in the presence of. The enticement of Ahab is his refreshing realness. As Moby Dick chopped his leg like a knife to a carrot, Ahab’s destiny was tied on a string to the coattails of the whale. What we identify in Ahab is something every human being struggles with finding in themselves, and that is our destiny. That is why we subtly root for Ahab, why we follow his spatting speeches and hoarse callings to the white whale. Ahab is on a tightrope that disappears behind him with every pegged step to a single destination… death by Moby Dick. We were placed in this universe with no readable manual, or written rules. No one to tell us our purpose, or why we’re here. So we looked upward at the stars and prescribed deities to soften our worries. Then came Ahab, who seemingly stood in his own universal plane, created by himself, created by his burning desire to eliminate the hatred and everything that stood for that white whale which severed his leg. There was no conscious appreciation, however, that Ahab’s leg was taken at the same time his destiny was written. Whether the personal being wishes a transcendent being to write its destiny, or the lack thereof is similarly exciting, is something we wish to find out, but never will.

 The whale is an ambient source of fear, terror, and intrigue. The ghostly polarity of its skin is reminiscent of the mist we imagine our demons in. The known pattern of the tiger is less feared because we are fully aware of its power. The innocent white of the whale holds a ubiquitous amount of horror, hatred, and most importantly the unknown. When looking upon the whiteness of Moby Dick, it reflects our conscious peering up into the sky, not at the stars, but into the void. We are looking for something, and at the notion that whatever that something is isn't there, existential fear introduces itself. We are infinitely minute, and the void is infinity. Endless possibilities entertain our brain, as if to dance the clown’s jest in mockery of our existence. What awaits in the universe is unknown to us, but what is deep inside the whale we are given glimpses of. Harpooned scars, marine scratches, cleaved ruts deep into the sperm whale’s omniscient skin is what drives its fins to flutter itself through the water at top speeds at the hull of the Pequod. Facing against its own universal shadow, the only thing for Moby Dick to do is fight or run. Facing our own universal shadow, are we to fight, run, or embrace?

 It appears the earliest American literature follows a similar theme, and that is discovery. Discovery of nature, of new land, of oneself, is what Americans wish to stand for. Melville questions who truly is our heroes by the introduction and familiarship with Captain Ahab. Melville also questions our true fear in the face of all fears; the unknown. Melville died without his answer, and perhaps so will we, but he did accomplish one thing; placing our deep rooted feelings at the forefront of our brains to face the unknown, cavernous, infinite universe before us.