The Innumerable Meanings of Moby Dick Essay -- Moby Dick Essays

The Innumerable Meanings of Moby DickCall me Ishmael. The first row of this story begins with an assertion of self-identity. Before the second page is reached, it becomes quite overtake to me that within this assertion of self-identity lay an enticing universality. Ishmael represents every slice somehow and no man entirely. He is an individual in his declare right, while personifying a basic human desire for something more, something extraordinary. As his signalise implies, he is an outcast from a great family (p.18). Although we all share Ishmaels keen for adventure (however deeply hidden it may be), to throw aside our refinement (despite its discontents ) could mean societal suicide. So, we look through his eyes, we cling to his desire, we dream of his escape.This creation of ours in all its absurdity is seemingly as vast as an ocean beyond its horizon. Yet with all its opportunity, with all its splendor, we somehow vie to spoil the prospects it so generously offers. We pa ck ourselves into overcrowded spaces we cram our brains with bits and pieces of irrelevancy we litter ourselves along a well-beaten path we cloud our souls with a veil of conformity. And all the same there still cadaver, somewhere deep inside every unitary of us, the desire to cast aside restraint and venture into whatever self-indulgence tugs at our heartstrings and innermost fantasy. For Ishmael this was the sea Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses...then I account it high time to get to sea as before long as I can (p. 18). For Ishmael to remain on rim would mean to grow hazy about the eyes and lose bus of what makes him happy, the drive that makes him human- his love of the sea. ... ...story of stories . However, its greatness does not lay in the incident formulation of particular words in particular sentences into particular paragraphs and so forth. As with any great story, Moby Dick is comprised of infinite, multifaceted, and often allusive levels of meaning. What makes a novel great is its interaction with its readers. The degree to which a story remains unguarded and flexible while simultaneously enticing and provoking its readers, is what makes it great. The meanings I find hidden within the text of Moby Dick are impertinent any others. Yet, they are mine and mine alone. As in Moby Dick, the unbounded meanings that lie dormant within stories are like ungraspable phantoms. With Moby Dick representing an epitome, the beckoning ungraspable phantoms secret in stories, are the key to their command.Works CitedMelville, H. Moby Dick.