Personal Reflection on Moby Dick or the Whale - Essay Example

Personal Reflection- Moby Dick or the Whale “…these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beautyand brilliancy of the ocean’s skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.” (Melville 450). The Ocean Is A Mirror…Looking into God’s Face, We See Ourselves On the day I read the Gilder, I could not stop imagining that the ocean could have such interpretations as the story revealed. The Gilder gives four descriptions of the sea according to the perceptions of different characters in the story. For instance, Ishmael considers the ocean as soft and loving such that it represents a bride. He compares the softness of the moving ship over the water surface to a soft and beautiful skin. However, other characters such as Ahab consider the ocean as deceptive because, under the smooth waters, there lain death in waiting. Ahab acknowledges the fact that the sea in reality is a tiger under the surface. The ocean is, therefore, more dangerous than the land. According to Ahab, the sea is a mirror of God, and it represents Him as hidden and terrible, whose nature is deadly. Starbuck looks at the ocean and God as a bride at her wedding. The professor got me thinking of the reason for Christmas was a new beginning, yet inverted. For instance, Ahab thinks of the sea as a revenge because that is what he was up to during the journey for religious quest. The sea is therefore a revenge, not healing as quoted in line 536 (Melville 450). “…..Loveliness unfathomable, as ever lover saw in his young bride’s eye!—Tell me not of thy teeth tiered sharks, and thy kidnapping cannibal ways. Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe.”(Melville 451). Our Religious Journey is a Reflection of Dualism Ahab asserts that the sea is too ambiguous and vicious for coherent faith, with our attraction to it infinite and unexplored. There are two things I noted out of these words, first the fact that God is inexplicable and second that religion is a faithful expression. For this case, the people at sea are trading a religious journey in which everything is a duality. Death lingers in lives of individuals, which kept me thinking about the whiteness of the whale. After a reflection on the readings, I discovered that such a question would be a distinction between good and evil according to our perception. Why were the whales both white and black? Why use the sea and not land? The answer lies in the nature of duality of religion. Sometime before birth, in the beginning, there is always the light that is the blinding light representing the whiteness of the whale. However, the whiteness is only a matter of disguise, which hides death that the whales pose to humans. The relationship between the whale and the dark sea could also have a different meaning, a white object against a dark background. The whiteness of the whale could be hope for that religion presents us who trade the difficult journey of Christianity. As such, mysticism is an act of believing in the duality of supernatural powers. Do humans enjoy at birth? Ishmael, just like Starbuck, can rejoice at birth and see whiteness as the Unknowability marriage and of love and sexuality not just the Unknowability of Power and Death. “….So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honor demanded that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down in his wake.” (Melville 302). Mystic Union and Family Ties The story inspires thoughts about our mystic and family ties, which again are complicated matters according to Ishmael and the rest. In Monkey Rope, Ishmael wakes up and finds himself wedded to Queequeg. There is a consideration for mystery in mystic relationships, which requires a re-birth. The rebirth for this case means that individuals need meditation for a strong union with the supernatural powers. Therefore, there is much thought about the implications of Queqpeeg’s childbirth. Could it be a mere indication of the family? If such were true, then it drives me into thinking about our family ties. The family is the simplest unit were all of us receive essential love. A circle of Nursing Amorous Whales indicates just how much the power of a family means to individuals. The fact that even the most dangerous individuals belong to a family indicates how important the family is to everyone, which gets Ahab yearning for his family in line 590. Perhaps the family and our mystic relationships make individuals strong in their human conditions such as abandonment (203 and 454) and landlessness. For instance, the mystical treatise of Queqpeeg’s body made her stronger than her natural human nature. Mystic connections also reveal the indefinite nature of God (117) and the fact that He alone is the true Philosopher (56). It also shows the goodness of the gods and differentiates them from the wicked nature of mortals. “…There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces.” (Melville) Woe and Will Are Contrasting of Human Nature The same mysticism presents the fact that humans contradict themselves in trying to seek perfection. As such, the story is an intriguing experience of persons on their journey towards the will of God, in the dark sea. Therefore, the whiteness of the whale represents both darkness of nature and the hope through all difficulties, which is dualism. My perception of the nature of God through the eyes of characters of the story gives an insight into the fact that no one can ever study Him, even using the strongest wisdom. There are also considerations that Ahab is constantly in a fight with his will. He wants revenge, which he cannot attain because he was a Christian. Christmas marked a new beginning for many of the characters in the story, but some of them could not feel the need for change. It reminds me of times when making choices about some things becomes difficult and even at times a conflict of interest. It could also mean that humans do not have a stand concerning what they need and that most of them have to sway between options. I find the story of Ahab a reflection of what most people do in life, especially with mystic meditations. The twist of events in the stories blends everyday life experiences using the journey as a matter of life. The use symbols such as the whale and the sea represent just how many problems everyone faces in life. The vastness of the sea gives me an insight of the volume of natural problems that the journey of life offers. The whales remind me of the dangers of carelessness in life, especially with concerns adventure. The story tells everyone about the need for cautious steps to avoid death. Works Cited Melville, Herman, and Tony Tanner. Moby Dick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print. Read More