Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

  Moby-Dick

Herman Melville

Published 1851

American Novel

The Well-Educated Mind Novels

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Herman Melville hated God, and he loathed Christianity and its followers; but mostly he was angry with God. 

Melville was raised in a strict form of Calvinism and the Reformed Church. At age 12, he witnessed his father die a terrible death and had to work to help support his family. Eventually he went to sea, where, on many voyages, he witnessed every intolerable misfortune and immoral deed imaginable: lust, theft, disease, pestilence, hunger, hatred, murder, racism, poverty, and death. Many crimes and tribulations he connected with Christianity because these crimes were perpetrated by so-called Christians or in the name of "Christian" nations, with no relief even from the sympathetic God of his youth. Hence, Melville's heart hardened against Christianity, believers, and the Christian God.

In interpreting this novel, it is commonly held that Moby-Dick, the white whale, represents nature, a god, or the God of the Bible. I am 100% certain now, after this second read, that Melville intended to portray Moby-Dick as the Christian God, exactly as the author experienced His character.

To Melville, God was a colossal bully who exploited His power, harassing and tormenting small, powerless man on the earth, especially in his time of misery and affliction. To Melville, God was not a God of mercy, grace, or love. God was heartless. 

Here's food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels; that's tingling enough for mortal man! to think's audacity. God only has that right and privilege. Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that. 

According to Melville, at least we humans can feel. God cannot. We are nobler than God, even though we can never overpower Him; at least we have a conscience, Melville argued.

On and on and on...the entire book is contempt, suspicion, animosity, and vexation directed at Christianity and God. Melville is not the first to experience rebellion toward his religion or to blame God for all the world's calamity, hardship, and injustice. But why did he fiercely reject and challenge Him? I cannot fully understand this answer until I dig deeper into Melville's personal life. 

Moby-Dick is not genuinely about whaling or struggles at sea or even a lunatic sea captain bent on revenge. It is a written record of one man's personal and private struggle with his pride. Melville knew his Bible very well, and He knew the truth; but he chose not to believe. He bitterly turned away from God, and he put himself in God's place, as man is want to do generation after generation. In the end, I think Melville knew it was dangerous to take this position; but he refused to yield. 

According to Hawthorne, he said of Melville, "He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other. He has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us." 

Moby-Dick, the novel, is a raging case against the God of the Bible, but it is also Melville's justification for his own self-righteousness. He said he felt "as spotless as a lamb" for writing a "wicked book," but I wonder if his conscience burned within him. With his obvious religious symbolism and parody of theology, Melville must have known he was accountable by Christians (and God). 

Furthermore, his rebellion against God is so blatant and arrogant that I believe he was unbearably cognizant of his circumstance. In other words, he needed to prove unequivocally to himself that he was not afraid of the wrath of God; and therefore should no one else.

Well, having said all that, what do I really think of Moby-Dick? 

I will never get rid of this book, and I will read it again, God willing. It is rightly considered important literature, cleverly written, and at times poetry. Melville wrote about what many people only struggle with privately: we have and will continue to throw temper tantrums at God; we rage about the world's misery and injustice; we question our own beliefs; and the hypocrisy of the religious confines us. Naturally, we all are at enmity with God; we all wrestle with our faith.

Moby-Dick is the written record of that universally personal, private human conflict with God. 

Unfortunately, Melville's rebellious pride was more valuable to him, even though he knew man never wins in his conflict with God; nonetheless, he would not yield to God's will. To me, that is the most notable and inescapable part of the story - the personal story behind the story. 

And so, if I can end on this note...while I think Moby-Dick is a literary treasure and that it should be read for its brilliance, just know that there is something far deeper about the story and its author than what you may initially read upon its surface -- something very melancholy and heartbreaking. That is how I feel about Moby-Dick and what I see when I look at the eyes of the man in this portrait.