Moby Dick

I can’t decide if my love of reading is why my career choice is communications or if my communications focus is why I love to read. Either way, a love of reading is what one needs to commit to Moby Dick! American writer Herman Melville wrote this amazing novel in 1851, and even though it is a beloved classic, it wasn’t popular when Melville was alive.

Most people, when they hear Moby Dick, think of the great white whale who bit off the leg of crazy Captain Ahab. They also think the novel is all about the story of Captain Ahab chasing Moby Dick for revenge.

However, while reading Moby Dick, I felt the story was very different. It was the story of a journey taken by Ishmael, ergo the famous quote, “Call me Ishmael.” We follow Ishmael’s sea journeys thoughout the book, and we learn through his narrative all about whaling boats, Nantucket, and far off places. It is an informative novel about how sailors in the 1800s caught whales and butchered them at sea. There was even a paragraph about how sailors thought that there were so many whales, there was no way the sea would ever run out of this nobel and majestic animal.

Herman Melville educated the reader on the many types of whales, how a whaling expedition is prepared, and the number of people it took to run a whaling boat. Melville himself served on whaling boats and used these experiences to write Moby Dick.

I highly recommend investing the time to read Moby Dick. I loved the story and feeling like I was taken back in time to 1850, being part of a ship’s crew who put their lives in danger just by being on board. Then when the excitement about Ahab and the great white whale builds, I understood the manic feeling of the one-legged captain. Ahab wasn’t in his right mind and all the crew knew it, but they had no choice but to follow orders.

Great story, beautiful writing, and worth the investment of your time to read this classic!