Quote Originally Posted by Rater202 View Post
Ummhmm. Whales weren't particularly understood at the time—this was written well before we knew they were intelligent creatures and, onestly, before whaling even became a problem. Harpoon guns hadn't been invented yet so actually killing the whales was hard and dangerous as all **** putting a natural limit on how many could be killed.

At best, the whale is a particularly large and dangerous animal, cognizant of and thus uncaring of Ahab's quest for vengeance and doing as it will. At worst, it's an allegory for the ineffable whims of nature, or even an uncaring and indifferent God that acts only when offended... I've also seen a literary argument in favor the whale being a metaphor for Satan but that's a stretch.

Of course, by a modern reading things come across pretty differently: The reason the whale is "white" is because it's a very old sperm whale, which grow paler as they age... And because it's covered in scars from all the times whalers have tried and failed to bring this particular one in.

Given that the white whale of the novel was based on several real cases of older sperm whales attacking whaling vessels, with what we know now of whale intelligence a plausible reading becomes that the whale itself was just as vengeful as Ahab, it was simply more justified and more successful.
Yeah!

Also, while the Whale itself is just a living storm of symbolism in the books, the actual confrontation they have with him does a VERY good job of making it truly feel eldritch, imo? Like, when the Whale actually shows up you start to understand why Ahab sees it as some black-hearted demon from the depths of hades. It's fantastically done, and has given me many ideas.