Moby-Dick or, The Whale question

The easiest is man vs. nature.

obsession vs. rationality

Yes as well as the relationship between Men and God.

Well, I really didn't like this book. I did feel, however, that the obsessive nature of Ahab was injected into the very monotony of the book itself. The fact that I found it so boring only helped to cement my disdain for Ahab and his relentless attitude.

Throughout the entire book Captain Ahab is solely focused on killing Moby Dick and wanting vengeance on him for taking his leg, which ultimately ends in the death of not only Captain Ahab but all of his crew, except one, as well.
There's also a big theme of Fate. Many of the sailors believe in prophecies and their fate being written in the stars. Captain Ahab uses their belief in fate to make them think it's their destiny to kill Moby Dick.

One of the themes of this book is "Uncertainty of Life" and the human quest to understand their existence in the world.

I have been going back and forth on what are the major themes in this book and the meaning of this book keeps changing for me.

Melville named the book "Moby-Dick". So plainly it is about the whale. And the goal of the two main figures in the book is to try to understand the whale. Ahab wants to dominate it by killing it and Ishmael wants to understand the whale like a scientist. Breaking it apart, seeing it piece by piece in order to come to a major discovery.

David Milch uses a talk on how writers sometimes intentionally alienate the audience to achieve certain effects to discuss the theme of monomania in Moby Dick beginning at the 9:30 mark. http://theideaofthewriter.blogspot.co...