The Moby-Dick Metaphor

Growing up, Moby-Dick has always been that “household name” in terms of classic books that any bibliophile is meant to read. True enough, some schools here and abroad require their students to read Herman Melville’s novel to give their “graded feedback” regarding the piece. In my case, though, Moby Dick was never liked by my professor, so I was never required to review or give feedback on that literary masterpiece. And to be honest, I originally only read novels that are required by my school or, currently, by my clients who wanted their works validated. I only started reading classic novels during and after college. I do read books — I swear — but I mainly cater to fantasy and comic books exclusively.

Anyway, I took up Media-related studies back in college. Like any other student, I was a high-grade-centered kid, always prideful of getting a better mark than the others, and it was sickening now when I think about it.

For one of my subjects, Film Criticism, we were tasked to pick films from the ’50s and ’60s to study and create a reaction paper about their hidden meanings. Of course, I was excited. I loved movies more than anyone else in the class. I am knowledgeable when it comes to movies compared to anyone else I know. But films from the ’50s and ’60s? We may have a problem.

We were provided with choices, but I didn’t find anything that I’m familiar with from the list, so I asked someone else to pick anything for me. The film they picked? John Huston’s 1956 film Moby Dick.

Now, my knowledge of the story was originally narrowed to the following: there was a whale probably named Moby, they were on the boat, they were meant to kill the whale, and it was maybe set in England. And that’s it!

At first, the struggle I had was finding the movie in DVD rental stores (this was in 2012-2013 so Video City was still alive.) which wasn’t fruitful as they rarely cater to old movies. I ended up going to a computer shop to ask the guy to download the film for me for a fee. It was a success. I had the movie on my flash drive and all is well.

When we were given that task, it was around November and there was a tropical depression looming above my city. Due to the rainstorms being experienced around that time, an unexpected flood suddenly emerged. Sadly, our home was flooded during the dead of the night, soaking up some of my belongings including the flash drive where a copy of the film was stored. Although the reaction paper about the movie was not due until two weeks around that time (plus classes were suspended because of the flood), I already felt like I’m getting a bad grade because of the storm. It was the first “bite” for me.

When the classes resumed, I only had a few days to complete the task and the guy from the computer shop who downloaded the film on my behalf suddenly resigned and the new one had no idea how to look up films online. Agitating as it seems, I was getting desperate as — like any other student — I wanted to have high grades so I was bent on getting the task done and creating a reaction paper like no other (in class).

I finally thought, “Hey, this was based on a novel! Maybe I should just read the book instead of stressing myself so much.” Lucky for me, the novel was easier to find than the film.

Being young and full of determination, I managed to read the 400-plus-paged book within a day and created the reaction paper as soon as I finished.

Given that the paper was based on the book, the reaction paper became story-centered and not cinema-centered. I even forgot to list down the director’s name and the amazing cast. Even though I was given an acceptable grade, I was not satisfied with my work. I felt like I made too much effort for something that eventually gave me uncertainty regarding my approach to my studies, my grades, and even my college life.

Dramatic as it may seem, I began reflecting on Captain Ahab’s sworn revenge on the whale. Yes, the whale bit his leg so he vowed to kill it, losing his life, almost all of his crew, and his ship in the process. But did the white whale perish? It was uncertain. So he was hell-bent on vengeance and in the end, it was all for naught.

Just like our egos and our feelings of pride — we take so much effort to fuel those flames that at times we unwittingly lose our humility in the process. And for what? For nothing. Sometimes, it is obsession or madness and the result is always the same: nothing. A little spark may be mistaken as a good result, but these sparkles only mask the real darkness that looms.

For me, Ahab represents the human aspect of trying so hard to go against nature. The one that thinks so highly of himself that he ends up with a belief that he is a god who can do anything he pleases to benefit his ego. The white whale, though, represents a higher power that controls humanity, limits it, and then puts it in its place. The story itself is not really about catching whales or getting the glory of a ship captain. For me, it’s about going against nature (as indicated in the closing paragraphs). Combating something natural thinking it was the antagonist, when in fact it was you — who was going against it — is the real villain all along.