Ishmael describes Moby Dick as having two prominent white areas around "a peculiar snow-white wrinkled forehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump", the rest of his body being of stripes and patches between white and g… See more

Although attacks by whales on whalers were not at all common, there were instances, of which Melville was aware.
One was the sinking of the Nantucket whaler Essex in 1820, after a large sperm whale rammed he… See more

Melville presents Moby Dick as a symbol of many things, among them God, nature, fate, evil, the ocean, and the very universe itself. Yet the symbolism of the White Whale is deliberately enigmatic, and its inscrutabilit… See more