Sep 18 2008
Entry for Chapters 41-42
In chapter 41, Ishmael finds out about Ahab’s encounter with Moby-Dick where he had his leg bitten off and was left to suffer for a lengthy period of time. I can imagine that many people in Ahab’s position would similarly want revenge on the being who inflicted so much pain on them, but I doubt that few could take it to quite Ahab’s level. If this journey was not so omen-ridden or smothered with as much foreshadowing for death, I could imagine Ahab sitting in a chair at home after the journey was over, smoking a new pipe and looking at Moby-Dick’s bones or something resting over the mantle and thinking about what creature he was to hunt next, T-Rex perhaps? I really liked the quote about Ahab that read “He was intent on an audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge” (162). I thought that explained Ahab’s fixation with Moby-Dick perfectly, as only an author such as Melville could write about a character such as Ahab. The word “supernatural” was the one that caught me, because it said that Ahab’s need for revenge ran so deep that nothing in this world could quite capture it.
With chapter 42, I expected to be bored by the end of 7 pages strictly about the color white, but Melville presented so many different aspects to it that I wanted to keep reading. What I gathered from it was that Melville wanted to let people know that while many people associate it with being pure, it’s actually nothing but pure… evil and radiates terror and fear. I don’t think I will ever look at marshmallows, clouds, or blank paper the same way again.
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