Briefly discuss the allegory and symbolism in Herman Melville's work Moby-Dick.

Briefly discuss the allegory and symbolism in Herman Melville's work Moby-Dick.

A.Herman Melville used symbols, that is, objects or persons who represent something else. Different people on board the ship are representations of different ideas and different social and ethnic groups.
B.Facts become symbols and incidents acquire universal meanings; the Pequod is the microcosm of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth.
C.The white whale, Moby-Dick, symbolizes nature for Melville, for it is complex, unfathomable, malignant, and beautiful as well. The whale represents only evil. It is like a wall, hiding some unknown, mysterious things behind.
D.Ahab wills the crew to join him in the pursuit of the big whale so as to pierce the wall, to root out the evil, but only to be destroyed by evil, in this case, by his own desire, his madness.
E.Moby Dick is a mystery of the universe and the voyage of the mind will remain a search of the truth.