Moby Dick and Thunderstorm on Narragansett Bay

Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick, may on the surface seem to be the story of a sea captain obsessed with a whale. More than that, however, Moby Dick is an account of humankind's struggle against an uncontrollable and sometimes violent natural world. In the chapter entitled The Quarter Deck the reader is given a glimpse into Captain Ahab's madness, and the opportunity to see that madness reflected, not only from his crew, but from the …

…Ahab himself who is "not unlike the weather horizon when a storm is coming up" (2313). Ironically, the more Ahab attempts to distance himself from the thing he loathes, the more it controls him. Both Heade and Melville seem aware that nature must be reckoned with on its own terms. No human being can control the entity from which he or she has sprung. The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth.