Free College Essays - Lessons Learned in Moby Dick

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There is much to be learned from the theme of the novel Moby-Dick. As in any book, there is a message or a sort of subliminal “moral of the story” type lesson you can learn from Moby-Dick.

The novel, Moby-Dick, can teach you many things if you can remain focussed long enough. However, the most prominent lesson that can be learned from the work is not that complicated and rather apparent. This lesson can be summed up in one sentence; don’t become to focussed and obsessed with one goal to the point that you exclude the more important things in life. This lesson is represented with Ahab’s peculiar obsession with hunting and killing a whale. By setting this as his most significant goal in life, he begins to ignore more important things such as the lives of his crewmen, and eventually his own life. This mistake wound Ahab up dead. Although the novel isn’t trying to say that if you over obsess with a matter or issue in your life that you will die, it’s simply trying to say that if you put minor self-centered goals before what’s most important, you will more than likely regret it. This lesson is very true, and can be related to real life instances when compared to examples such as government dictatorships or social relationships. For instance, many dictatorships are lead by one person with overwhelming power over his or her nation. This, in most cases, ends up with a greedy and uncontrollable leader who leads their country to certain downfall. Also, on a much more common scale, some relationships can symbolize this lesson. For example, say one person is very much so attracted to another.

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