Blog Number 3

Since the beginning of time the sea has always held a fascination for mankind. Since the earliest sailors took to the ocean there always arose fantastical tales of huge leviathans or monsters lurking in the deep awaiting the unlucky sailor to wander beyond the sight of shore. The vast sea holds the wonder and the mysteries of the unknown, and some may argue that it is only human nature to fear this unknown. This fear is prevalent in many ancient myths of various ancient societies, and it is seen even in the pages of American Literature.

The best example of this would be Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ in the form of the great white whale for which the book is named. The white whale Moby Dick is the source of obsession of Captain Ahab of the Pequod, who would only describe the source of his obsession as the representation of evil. Melville goes on about the sheer whiteness of Moby Dick, something that is usually the symbol for purity and transforms it into something horrible and frightening taken form in a great whale that delights in acts of malevolence against mankind. It is the embodiment of the unknown, a fearsome god of the deep that the brave men of Nantucket sail out to hunt.

I still remember the first time I saw the ocean. To my eyes it seemed so large, stretching from horizon to horizon and going further than the eye could see. It was as if I was struck dumb and blind at the shore by its sheer magnitude. The mighty waves crashed and broke against the shoreline again and again like a heartbeat, above circled the seagulls awaiting the errantly dropped meal. Surely something mightier, or at least grander, than I lived in the deep? I was fascinated and spent many an afternoon on the shoreline-yet I never went in.

Why? Well, at the same time as I was so fascinated by the magnificence of the ocean, I also felt a profound fear that gripped my being prostrate at the mere thought of entering the water. My older brother had, in devilish delight, recently showed me the Jaws movies, as well as the Anaconda movie. Before that grand endless motion I could not help but fear that hidden beneath those murky waters lurked such terrible creatures. The unknown frightened me; I couldn’t see what dared claim this mighty sea as its home.

Ahab met such a creature in the form of the great white whale Moby Dick who ate his leg before escaping back into the depths of the ocean. And this turned into his obsession he chased the object of his humiliation into the unknown and in the end the unknown devoured not only him but the entire crew of the Pequod as well.

Where the source of Ahab’s obsession of the unknown took shape in the form of Moby Dick mine remained without form or shape beneath the rolling majesty of the ocean. Over time I beat the fear of the sea but sometimes when I am on a boat with nothing but ocean in all directions around me I cannot help but feel as if there is something else lurking beneath the water. Beneath that deceptive bland water lies an abundance of life, an entire ecosystem that to this day is unknown. It is not hard to see how one could imagine such terrifying creatures as Moby Dick lurking beneath you. It is only human nature to fear what you do not understand; the unknown is constantly lurking outside of our awareness. For this reason some fear the dark, others the mystery of the ocean, always it is what hides that binds us in fear.