Well we finally completed the American epic Moby-Dick. Many questions were answered, but some still linger. Particularly, in my case, what would have happened if Ahab lived? Sure, there was the prophecy, he was not the most likeable
character in the book, and if there is anyone on the ship who could be considered a villain and
should die it needed to be him, but could he live after he did what he planned
on doing? Would he know what to do
with his life? Did he see no way
out of this prophecy he felt compelled to fulfill? If he didn’t do it, he would
die of shame, if he died doing it was a noble death and it was going to happen
anyway. His obsession with
vanquishing the white whale never saw past actually killing him. He never talks about what he plans to
do afterwards, and it is drawn out later in the novel that he really did not
have much to go home to. Sure he
had a wife and kid, but he hasn’t been on land for the majority of the last 40
years of his life. Does he have
any life goals or aspirations other than the cold-blooded murder of
Moby-Dick? He doesn’t care about
money or people, or any other minor hobbies like scrapbooking. The whale is his life, and without the
whale, does he have a life? Does
he have any other purpose? His
revenge has consumed him, and he has found himself to be the monster he so diligently
tries to extinguish. Thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment