So why the book, Melville?

     Mankind believe they are superior, especially to other beings, or in Melville's case, whales. Melville's novel Moby Dick was written in the history of time where whaling was popular in culture. Yes, whaling, where men go out to sea and hunt whales. Although Melville was an expertise on whales and had a heart at being at sea, he was not a fan of whale hunting. Moby Dick is his way of presenting man's ego and that they are in all honestly small compared to nature, or in other words whales are superior to man, but people in society are too dim-witted to realize it. Ishmael, although, is the only one in the novel that is afraid of Moby Dick, for he described the whale as 'ghostly.' 

     Through the death of Captain Ahab due to his battle with the Great White Whale, Melville conveys to his audience the phenomenon of nature and that in nature man is tiny. Captain Ahab, a man with one leg versus Moby Dick, a great white whale. Who is going to win? Moby Dick of course, but Ahab's ego of being superior to Moby Dick leads Ahab to believing he can take the whale down... on his own...with one leg. 

     Melville's many chapters of useless and pointless zoology reports on whales had no relation to the concept of the text, although one of them finally did, where he speaks of the dangers of whales. His point in humans being too brainless to realize the harmful elements of which they are not strong enough to handle is an excellent interpretation on society. In this time period of society, whaling is currently illegal in America, maybe people finally understood this concept Melville portrayed, or they are just looking out for the whales.
     This authorial purpose of man being inferior in nature can also be portrayed through Melville's biblical references. In chapter 42, "The Whiteness of the Whale," Melville describes the white color of Moby Dick, which in biblical in terms, the color whiteness would also describe God. So to narrow it all down, Melville also points out the relationship of man and God. Through his religious knowledge in the novel that Melville provides, there is an understanding that man is inferior to God, as they are to the whale, for the whale symbolized a superior figure.