This Is The End, My Only Freind, The End

Needless, to say I felt the ending of the book was the epitome of the sublime, with the end being unattainable. Sadly, Ahab dies and brings the ship and the crew down with him, spare one survivor. But what would have happened if Ahab had killed the whale, I wonder? Would it be a happy ending, one of completion, a satisfying conclusion. Perhaps. But I like it this way better. For if Ahab were to attain his goal and kill the whale, the book would have a completely different significance. I think Melville was hitting on the notion of the subliminal as it appears to us in nature. We are small in the face of Moby Dick, and the world alike. But that's what drove Ahab, this curiosity in wanting to accomplish something that was bigger than he was. Mody Dick took something from Ahab that made him incapable of being a full human, it made him realize his own insignificance. Ahab, fighting these feelings rebelled with a sense of curiosity and drive. His demise should be taken as a illustration that we can never capture the essence of the sublime, but if we have the same drive that Ahab had for the whale, as we can have for the world, we will become more than we can possibly imagine.