【白鲸】是19世纪美国小说家Herman Melville在1851年发表的一篇关于海洋题材的长篇小说，小说描写了亚哈船长为了追逐并杀死白鲸Moby Dick，最后和白鲸同归尽的故事。
我第一次读这本小说是在小学，那时候我想这个船长真勇敢。后来我又觉的这个人怎么这么傻，一般人都会因为受伤而产生对自然的敬畏，但是亚哈却孜孜不倦，一定要去报复那只抹香鲸，乃至失去了理性。
再后来接触了文学，深入的了解当时的美国背景后发现亚哈和莫比·迪克的形象是有象征意义的。亚哈船长身材高大，脸上有疤痕，他的一条假腿是由鲸鱼骨头制作而成，一个具有悲剧性的人物，从出现就显得神秘莫测。也正是这个形象，显现出当时美国民族正处于一个上升时期，有着朝气蓬勃的奋斗冒险和战胜一切困难的大无畏精神。亚哈正是根植于美国民族精神土壤的勇士。
白鲸莫比·迪克，可被看作大自然无常力量的象征，它不像其它鲸按照季节和自身规则出没在某个水域，白鲸违反了鲸类的一般规律，它是没有线索的，是未知的。所以白鲸的存在，无时无刻都在给捕杀它的人们带来宿命般的恐惧与哀伤。
亚哈为了替自己报仇，把其他船东的利益放在脑后，并且无视船员的生死而一意孤行。他甚至为了达到自己的利益，对船员进行了威逼利诱，导致了最后船毁人亡悲剧的发生。在这里，亚哈船长比白鲸要更为残忍、更为邪恶，他成为黑暗与邪恶的象征，而他的所作所为，缺乏道德作为底线，缺乏理性的思想作为基础，只随意任由本能去驱使行动的付出，最终，酿成了悲剧的发生。
最后的结局不禁让我们联想起人和自然的关系，人和自然谁也征服不了谁，只有相互依靠，互相补充才会有一线生机。“征服和占有”永远不应是时代的主题，和平共处是真谛。
It is a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe. Ishmael is the narrator of the novel. The captain, Ahab is a monomaniac man whose single purpose is to revenge the fierce, cunning white whale Moby Dick.
Character:
Ahab is s tragic hero, hoping to transcend the human limitations by sheer defiance
against God. He has dauntless courage to challenge God or Nature. However, his mad pursuit finally leads to frustration while his pride in the search is inherently self-destructive.
Themes:
① Alienation, which exists in different levels between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Captain Ahab is a typical “isolato". In his egocentric obsession he lost his sanity and humanity and becomes a devilish creature rushing headlong towards his doom. Besides, most of the individuals on the Pequod suffer from alienation of varying levels.
② Rejection and quest: Ishmael resembles his namesake in the Bible in that he is a wanderer. Rejecting his early lifestyle, he tries to seek for a happy and ideal life. Up to the time he goes on board the Pequod and midway through the book, he is an escapist. However, he comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer nature, and begins to feel the significance of love and fraternity among mortal beings. Voyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and values.
Melville lost no opportunity in his criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individual: Ahab is too much of a self-reliant individual to be a good human being. He stands alone on his own one leg among the millions of the peopled earth. For him the only law is his own will. His selfhood must be asserted at the expense of all else. Moby Dick thus reveals the pattern of 19th century American life: loneliness and suicidal individualism in a self-styled
