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In the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville, the apparent themes: good vs. evil, civilized vs. uncivilized, and conventional vs. unconventional are throughout the book, but they are not as superficial as they seem. In treating the theme good vs. evil, the apparent message is one of Ahab being the innocent victim.
A man disfigured and tormented by a beast of nature. In juxtaposition to that the whale can be perceived as being evil because of what he did to man. However, if we are to look at this objectively we would have to admit that man is also a creature of nature, and therefore you would have to ask, what represents evil in the novel; Moby Dick or Ahab? Throughout the book Ahab defies God.
He speaks out against him and admits his lack of faith. Moreover, since Ahab is so obsessed with killing the whale he puts his entire crew in jeopardy which does not only go against mans law (a captain must never put his crew or ship in danger for his own selfish intentions), but also goes against Gods law (mans indifference towards other men is sinful in Gods eyes). Through these actions we are shown that Ahab is more representative of the evil side of nature then Moby Dick. The book also incorporates the theme civilized vs.
uncivilized. Ishmael; the civilized man is compelled to teach Queequeg; the uncivilized man. Since Ishmael is the Christian and Queequeg the savage, Ishmael believes that by teaching Queequeg about organized religion, and the workings of society, he is saving him by helping him to adapt to the ways of civilization. Melville has us believe that Queequeg is born into civilization. That is Melville's apparent message, but in all actuality it is Queequeg who allows Ishmael to be born again.
Queequeg sees the world un obscured by the dogmatism of Christianity, which allows Ishmael to look at the world for what it is, not what religion tells you it is. It is Queequeg's coffin that saves Ishmael's life, it gives him a second chance and Ishmael is resurrected. The Christian is saved by a coffin handcrafted by a By simply looking at Melville's style of writing we can see that the conventional vs. the unconventional. Melville's breaking of literary convention in his writing, foreshadows his underlying depiction of the religious and social beliefs of the time. These depictions are not what society wants to read about, and that is why Melville's book breaks literary convention in both a literal way and in a figurative way.
By looking deeper into the ambiguities of Melville's writing, we are able to understand the ambiguities of life. Under the guise of a seemingly straight forward adventure novel, Melville subtly suggests greater meanings to the questions of life, then any one civilization can offer. In order for his book not to have seemed blasphemous at the time it was written, Melville had to veil his unconventional opinions under the guise of convention. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as a lamb.
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Research essay sample on Good Vs Evil Moby Dick
