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What is Moby Dick a metaphor for?

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The whale Moby Dick in Herman Melvilleā€™s 1851 novel Moby Dick has been interpreted as a metaphor for many things, from the Judeo-Christian God to atheism and everything in between. The ambiguity that Melville built into his depiction of the whale makes Moby Dick capacious in its meaning.

The novelā€™s plot centers on the journey of the Pequod, a whaling vessel whose captain, Ahab, is obsessed with finding the elusive Moby Dick. Like Ahab, many of the other characters share names with figures in Abrahamic religions.