Life As Fiction in Moby

"But ere stepping into the cabin doorway below, he pauses, ships a new face altogether, and , then, independent, hilarious little Flask enters King Ahab's presence, in the character of Abjectus , or the slave" This passage reminded me of a class theme we are discussing in Sexson's emergent class, Life as Fiction. The basis of the theme is that life or our lives are works of fiction, to quote the great Canadian band Rush, "All the world's a stage and we are merely players, performers and portrayers.." The idea is that we have limited control of our lives and as such our actions. In this way I think it is important to look at Ahab, as was mentioned in class, as the embodiment of several characters, namely King Lear, Hamlet and so on. In chapter XXXVII I get a much better sense of this idea when we as readers get a glimpse of Ahab's thought. "The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!" Ahab feels this sense of predetermined purpose, an undeniable path he must, nay will, follow. The fact that Ahab can be viwed as a revivification of other characters, relates to the notion of the iron rails where his soul runs. However, another element of life as fiction comes into play here, when Ahab makes the conscious decision to follow the iron gate. When we as people come to realize that we are in a story often times we can alter our actions to change our destiny. Although this may in fact be the very purpose of our lives, to change how we are, and that in fact reduces us once again, to merely characters in a story. I feel the point however, like it is manifested in Ahab, is to be a kind of unique blend of other characters and plot lines that will allow us to feel our own self derived purpose, because there can be none other than the self if that is all we can know.