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Is the novel 'Moby Dick' really about white superiority as portrayed by the recent Moby Dick musical?

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  • Anonymous
    1 year ago
    Favorite Answer

    People say that Moby Dick is about a gay male of leisure activities(Ishmael) who memorizes all there is to know about whaling so that he can hang out with fishermen who he is sexually attracted to. The life lesson of Moby Dick is to not let your genitalia lead you in life. Most literature professors are gay and so they will hype up books that have gay characters in them and Moby Dick is one of those books.

  • KJC
    Lv 7
    1 year ago

    I don't really think so. I didn't get that impression when reading it.

  • Athena
    Lv 7
    1 year ago

    No, that is just a lazy interpretation so you can get invited to campus cocktail parties with all the Deans. Toe the line sister and don't rock the boat.

  • 1 year ago

    No. It’s about ‘hubris’ and blasphemy. These authors were very intelligent people (Melville was a genius, As were a number of other authors and poets of his era) and they based a lot of their works on Greek classics, Greek and Roman Mythology, the Bible, Shakespeare , etc. And the concept of “hubris” (Pride against nature, pride against God and so on) plays a big part in the classic Greek tragedies.I’ve read a lot of Dick and I didn’t pick up on any racial overtones. In fact in my opinion Moby Dick the Whale  actually represented God. Captain Ahab was ‘going against God’ with his obsession in killing this whale. White symbolizes spirituality and purity among other things. As a matter of fact,  there is a whole chapter in that novel devoted to the symbolism of the color ‘white’ and it doesn’t go into racial issues that I can remember. (Although I would have to look at it again to make sure.) Even Captain Ahab’s  crewmembers felt Obsessively hunting down and killing this whale was an act of blasphemy on a Ahab’s  part.. On the other hand this bad@$$ whale  did take off Ahab’s leg so who can blame him? And any of the biographies of Herman Melville or synopses of that novel I’ve seen have never mentioned racial themes per se. There’s a lot of creative freedom which goes along with creating musicals. They don’t necessarily have to be true to the original literary sources. Poetic license. 

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  • Anonymous
    1 year ago

    I personally didn't pick up anything like that, I saw it more as being about toxic masculinity and the negative effects striving obsessively to be a "real man" has on men.

    Source(s): the book itself and the skills i learned in english lit
  • Anonymous
    1 year ago

    Yes, I picked up those themes 

  • 1 year ago

    No.

    _________

  • 1 year ago

    no, it's about obsession.

  • Marli
    Lv 7
    1 year ago

    How would a recent Moby Dick musical be allowed to promote white superiority? It would be an economic kiss of death for all concerned.

    Ahab was a New England (American Yankee) whaleboat captain. One harpooner in his crew was definitely not a white man. A skilled harpooner was an essential member of the crew so he was probably treated with the respect due to his job. Moby Dick was a very angry white whale (possibly a sperm whale)

    You should study the books about the book, but I think it was a man versus nature and the sea story.

  • Liz
    Lv 6
    1 year ago

    Seems like one of revenge but Ishmail didn't consider what the Bible says about vengeance at Romans 12:19 - “‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay,’ says Jehovah.” Maybe God got revenge on Ishmail for hunting one of his creatures. Idk. 

  • 1 year ago

    Idk about that but what I do know is that the whale Moby DICK is also a SPERM whale. Seems kinda gay...which shouldn't be a problem if you like that sort of thing I guess don't get mad plz

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