Symbolism is an important literary practice in literature and it has been widely used by many American writers. Discuss the way symbolism is used in Melville's Moby-Dick.
A.To Ahab, the whale is either an evil creature itself or the agent of an evil force that controls the universe, or perhaps both. The chase of the white whale symbolizes Ahab' pursuit of truth and fighting against the evil power.
B.To Ishmael, the whale is an astonishing force, an immense power, which defies rational explanation due to a sense of mystery it carries.
C.It also represents the tremendous organic vitality of the universe.
D.To the readers, the whale can be viewed as a symbol of the physical limits that life imposes upon man.
E.It may also be regarded as a symbol of nature. At the end of the chapter, the author says"...the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago."Here the sea symbolizes nature that remains moving but unmoved.
