Metaphors In Herman Melville's Moby Dick

In the novel " Moby Dick " written by an American writer named Herman Melville and published in 1851, It was mostly about a sailornamed Ishmael that tells a story about a man named Ahad who is captain of the " Whaler Pequod " and how he is on an obsessive quest for the " White Whale " because in an previous voyage for looking for whales to get oil the whale bit off Ahab's knee. The setting is at sea basically the whole time and Ishmael writes all about what he experiences such as all the whales they have killed for oil and all the oceans they have traveled to and all the continents they have been to that all led up to the big white whale that Ahab has been waiting for, for a very long time. Basically the theme of the Novel is about the Journey he takes and what he does during it and the decisions he makes and how he survives and all the metaphors that are in the story.
Metaphors are usually associated with objects that have a deeper meaning to it or have important concepts. Metaphors are not always easy to understand or to figure out. One metaphor in moby dick is Queenqueg's Coffin. The symbolism of the coffin changes throughout the story. The coffin signifies for Queenqueg's impending death and his homesickness because he loved his homeland. His coffin is shaped like a canoe because of his belief that once you die you should be adrift in sea and eventually the belief was that you would float to the sky. His coffin then later represents life and how he does not want to die. Lastly it shows his hope that he will survive and make it back home or " rebirth " for Ishamael until the " Rachel " rescues him. So the coffin develops many