In literature, symbolism is used to produce an impact by attaching additional meaning to an action, object, or name. Symbolism takes something that is an actual thing and associates it with something else to change the meaning.
Symbols are often used repeatedly in this process, making what they usually represent well-known. Common signs used in literature include colors, animals, seasons, and weather.
In the novel “Moby Dick by Herman Melville, two interesting symbols, among many, in this novel were the ship’s captain, Ahab, and the Whale. To Ahab, the White Whale represents the power that limits and controls man. Ahab sees the whale as evil and something he has to conquer. Ahab perhaps saw himself as God-like. His nature was charismatic, but he seemed obsessed with the need for power over this whale. The name “Ahab” must have had symbolic meaning for Melville because Ahab is named for the biblical story of Ahab in the Books of Kings 16:28–22:40, the evil idol-worshipping ruler.
Moby-Dick” was named after a real-life whale called Mocha Dick, named after the Chilean island of Mocha, where sailors first encountered him. “
The whale’s whiteness was another symbol used by the author, which was at least a symbol of fear and a metaphor for obsession. It served to focus on Ahab’s need to conquer. The choice of white as the color might imply purity or innocence, suggesting that Ahab’s focus was restoring justice through retribution, which he had made his lifetime task, as the real evil. Whales tend to be light shades of dark grey, blue, brown, and black. Perhaps the symbolism in having the whale white justifies the hate because it is different.
Ahab’s chase across the oceans of the world isn’t just one that is chasing a white whale but one that is pursuing the symbolic God that the whale represents.
Something that someone pursues obsessively and with little chance of success is what a white whale moment has come to mean. An example of this would be referring to a problem or something that will never get finished as our white whale.
The story becomes an investigation into the meaning of life.
