Whiteness Of The Whale

The theme of whiteness in the traditional sense usually represents purity, peace, innocence, and goodness. The theme of darkness, on the other hand, represents fear, chaos, injustice, and evil. Herman Melville in one of his novels, Moby-Dick or The Whale, challenges this idea and uses his novel in order to present the themes of duality, lack of knowledge, and fear of the unknown. Chapter forty-two of Moby Dick, Whiteness of the Whale, does not further the plot of the novel. Instead, it talks the one theme (whiteness of the whale) that the entire novel is based on and without this chapter the book loses its meaning as Melville writes, “It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me. But how can I hope to explain myself here; and yet, in some dim, random way, explain myself I must, else all these chapters might be naught.”

But later in the chapter, he argues that whiteness is also something that adds fear to anything that is already dangerous and that behind that majestic whiteness, there is fear and terror; a shark or a polar bear for example. A polar bear from far away looks peaceful and beautiful covered in its white fur coat, but in reality it is fearful and ferocious. Snow looks like heaven from a distance but it is cold and deadly once you are near it. Similarly, Ishmael is appalled by the whiteness of the whale more than anything because it the color white more than anything else that evokes the feeling of fear and danger in him; not the size or the ferocity of the whale but