Moby Dick Research Paper

Discuss the key symbols in the film (like the white whale); what do they represent? Does the film deal with class issues?
In watching the movie 2010:Moby Dick, I found a lot of religious symbolism surrounding Moby Dick , the colors black and white, and the depths and shallows of the ocean. Moby Dick, the white whale, appears to represent the unknown, specifically in spirituality. He is the epitome of an unknowable God to everyone in the movie, with the exception of Ahab, who quotes that “…he’s not a whale; he’s the devil himself”. Near the beginning of the movie when a Russian witness is being questioned about Moby Dick’s attack, she trembles when she was asked if the whale was black and she responded “It was white.” Outside of the room she was recovering in there was a picture of a black boy on a white sidewalk with a whited-out background and a white frame on a white wall. The poster read “Being safe doesn’t end when you leave work.” Moby Dick’s
whiteness marks him with an omnipresent persona that leaves humans with feelings of awe and wonder, fear and respect, mystery and uncertainty. Moby Dick’s encounters with people throughout the movie represent an uncontrollable and mysterious fate. The marine biologist quotes in the movie that the sound that he makes is “…not like a sound, but the absence of sound”.
In regards to the color black, it is the color of marked death in the movie. The Pequod is black and is marked for destruction (the Pequod Indians were eradicated by white men in Massachusetts during colonization as well, symbolizing impending doom of the submarine). Another submarine that was destroyed by its own torpedo (trying to kill Moby Dick) was also black. There are countless other representations of black and white throughout the movie. This can be seen amongst the cast as well.
Class issues are also addressed, with black people being portrayed as subservient to whites. When the marine biologist is tired, one of the white staff escorts her to her quarters while leaving her black assistant sitting at his work station, who comments “I’ll just take a nap right here” smiling sarcastically with acceptance. The same man later comments “It’s the whiteness of the whale that freaks me out”. Near the end of the movie the marine biologist leaves the ship and says goodbye to her black assistant, and he says to her “…you better make it back; I still need to get paid,” laughing about it. Also, it can be noted that all the black crew in the movie were holding lower ranking jobs in which the whites depended on them to perform the higher duties.
Ahab, who had his leg taken by Moby Dick in the beginning of the movie, quotes “I am fate’s Lieutenant” when chasing the whale down to the depths of the ocean and believes that his fate is tied with the whale’s fate, stopping at nothing to chase it to hell (referring to death at the depths of the ocean).
The depths of the ocean also represent the extent of the unknowable and mysterious, what cannot be seen our understood by humans. Near the end of the movie Moby Dick lures Ahab into the shallows then surfaces to fully reveal himself; Ahab states that Moby Dick is teasing him, and only now does Ahab fully see the whale with complete clarity. It is almost as if Moby Dick is now mocking Ahab with an impending fate (like the Grim Reaper arriving to escort the deceased). Regardless of the countless scars and teeth and harpoons gouged all over Moby Dick’s body, he is fully vigilant and seemingly invincible. Needless to say, Ahab is killed by Moby Dick shortly afterwards, and the whale carries on
relentlessly.
Works Cited:
2010: Moby Dick. Dir. Trey Stokes. 2010. DVD.