Moby Dick In the novel “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, the apparent themes: good vs. evil, civilized vs. uncivilized, and conventional vs. unconventional are throughout the book, but they are not as superficial as they seem. In treating the theme good vs. evil, the apparent message is one of Ahab being the innocent victim. A man disfigured and tormented by a beast of nature. In juxtaposition to that the whale can be perceived as being …showed first 75 words of 524 total…

…showed last 75 words of 524 total…we are able to understand the ambiguities of life. Under the guise of a seemingly straight forward adventure novel, Melville subtly suggests greater meanings to the questions of life, then any one civilization can offer. In order for his book not to have seemed blasphemous at the time it was written, Melville had to veil his unconventional opinions under the guise of convention. “I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as a lamb.”