Author Archives: Zach Capulong

Moby Dick In The Biblical Lens of The Tower of Babel

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Zachary Capulong

Professor Pressman

ENGL 522

12/17/2025

Moby Dick has been compared to many religious texts, especially those from the Bible. The books of Jonah, Job, and Ecclesiastes are often referenced when understanding Herman Melville’s novel. However, not many have connected the Pequod to Genesis 11:1-9. In the Bible, these verses were the full story of the Tower of Babel, which is often seen as the origins of multicultures and languages. It’s seen that way because the story is about a people who were united in one language. Because everyone can communicate, they could also share the same ideas and agree with each other. So they decided to band together to create a city and stay together. Worse, they wanted to build a tower that could reach the home of the God that put them on Earth in the first place. This novel has a deep inspiration from Genesis 11:1-9, especially through the Pequod, from the story of the Tower of Babel. It reenacts the biblical story not through shared language, but through shared imagination imposed by Ahab. Through Ahab’s authority, the diverse crew of the Pequod becomes unified under a single vision, transforming the ship into a modern, floating Babel. They collectively attempt to challenge the unconquerable. This is especially evident in Moby Dick’s chapters 36 and 135, which capture the Tower of Babel’s story at sea, fighting a creature that’s just as elusive and unreachable as Heaven. Conversely, the tower builders were confused by the sudden diversity of languages, preventing them from understanding each other. In other words, their teamwork was wrecked by nature’s judgement, just like Moby Dick did to the Pequod. It reveals how ambition in the hands of arrogance can ultimately trigger catastrophic consequences.

The drive to conquer the sublime requires first a unifying declaration. Moby Dick and the Tower of Babel story both have that central idea of a collective human will. The only difference is that the Pequod started with people from different backgrounds, but Captain Ahab changed that. In under one speech, he gathered the crew’s spirit with a doubloon: an alluring incentive they wouldn’t refuse. In chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, Ahab cried, “Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!” (pg. 181) With his charisma and intellect, Ahab convinced his crew to help him with his obsession. This is the ambition he wanted to share with the crew of the Pequod. And just like Ahab’s vengeance, the builders of the Tower of Babel aimed to reach the heavens with their construction. In Genesis 11:4, the Bible stated, “And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” (KJV) The fact the Bible went out of its way to say “they said” means it was not what God allowed. Both statements are declarations to challenge what they thought was only conquerable with cooperation. In a scholarly article, someone had focused on Ahab’s vanity, but also brought up Ahab’s drive. In Shuyang Xu’s article, “Ahab’s Hat was Never Restored: The Theme of Vanity in Moby-Dick with Reference to Ecclesiastes,” they mentioned, “The volatile mood, ecstatic passion, morbid obsession, and tyrannical authority exuded in his chase for Moby Dick are a peculiar demonstration of his vivacity; and his blasphemous way in putting himself onto any God is his fearless belief in free will and human power.” (pg. 37) This quote fully encapsulates Ahab’s role in the Pequod. His mood, passion, obsession and authority were powerful forces that shaped an entire crew. These factors, particularly Ahab’s charisma, were what let the Pequod to follow an ambition that could ultimately lead to their destruction. Xu’s analysis helps explain how Ahab’s authority does not remain personal, but spreads throughout the crew. He lets his obsession become a collective project rather than an individual fixation. Plus, the way Ahab spoke to steer the crew makes him look like he’s above divine authority. It’s no different to the people who said they’d built the Tower of Babel. Bobby Kurnia Putrawan, the writer of “Centripetal-Centrifugal Forces in the Tower of Babel Narrative,” said, “Babylon was the prototype of all nations, cities, and empire… represented man’s megalomaniacal attempt to achieve world peace and unity by domestic exploitation and power.” (pg. 202-203) Ahab’s “God hunt us all” and Genesis’s “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” are fates both have tried to avoid. This is blasphemy in both accounts. One directly challenged God, the other used God’s name in vain, and both tried to unite their people to do their bidding.

What sealed the fate of these people is that everyone, the tower builders and the Pequod’s crew, had, at least mostly, successfully congregated and agreed to complete their ambitions. Both groups were unanimous and feasted on their arrogance. Ishmael, in one of his rare first-person narrations in Moby Dick, caught “a wild, mystical, sympathetical feeling (that) was in me; Ahab’s quenchless feud seemed mine.” (pg. 194) This moment marked the transformation of Ahab’s obsession into a shared imagined reality. This was not coercion or obedience, it was sympathy and connection. Through the eyes of Ishmael, Melville gave us the perspective of the rest of the crew. The Pequod fell for Ahab’s charisma and wanted what he wanted. Metaphorically, they began to speak the same language as him. This fulfilled Genesis 11:6, which said, “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language… nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (KJV) “One language” doesn’t just mean its literal meaning, it also meant that everyone was under the same fervor. With this much hype, the collective ambition was no longer rhetorical. It became crystal clear that the Pequod, just like the tower builders of Babel, united as one. In the article, “Babel and New Jerusalem: Two Urban Expressions of Theological Contrast,” the writer, Fearrien, wrote, “Instead of following God’s plan to spread over the earth, their construction project shows their desire to function outside of God’s wishes.” This is symbolic to the fact the Pequod was meant to be just a whaling ship. The only crew member who opposed Ahab’s monomania, Starbuck, underlined the very function the Pequod was supposed to be: “I came here to hunt whales, not my commander’s vengeance.” (pg. 177) Just like the Pequod had an original purpose, the tower builders of Babel were originally meant to spread themselves throughout the planet. But the Pequod became a hunting ship, and the tower builders began to build the tower. Both of these ambitions perverted their foundations.

These unrestrained aspirations were punished by the very beings they wanted to conquer. The tower builders of Babel spread out as they could no longer build together. The Pequod sunk as Moby Dick destroyed the ship, dispersing the crew and destroying their distorted order. Both stories ended in a people’s collapse. In chapter 135, The Chase – Third Day, some of Ahab’s last words were, “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee…” (pg. 623) Ahab struggled to fulfill what he wanted, all because Moby Dick the whale wouldn’t let him. As the captain sunk, so did the entire crew. Moby Dick was the deliverer of the Pequod’s punishment, who pursued to kill the whale. In Genesis 11:9, it was said, “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. ” (KJV) In a way, the place the Pequod was sunk can also be called Babel, as it is where Moby Dick scattered the Pequod ship into pieces. The whale itself functions like God’s divine hand: not as a moral deity, but as a force that halted a collective effort that goes against it, the remnants spreading off where the waves take them. Putrawan, in his article about the Tower of Babel, included, “Most of the many perspectives on the themes of this narrative fall into two categories: first, it is about the divine action against humanity’s hubris and rebellion and second, it is about the divine action against humanity’s reluctance to disperse.” (pg. 194) Moby Dick, the novel, also tackles these two categories, although in different frameworks. Moby Dick, the natural judge, acted against the Pequod’s hunt, and also against the crew’s willingness to follow Ahab’s madness. Both of which still lead to the same concluding collapse. Xu goes on to support this narrative by saying, “…all the ordeals and obsessions involved to fulfill the mission proves to be null and void…” (pg. 37) All their efforts were futile; these ambitions that go against what natural order wanted. This does not mean to involve the order that the past originally thought to be natural, such as hierarchy and respect. It was purely the matter of arrogance, the desire to overcome a higher power that is undeniably more powerful.

When you approach things the wrong way, what you wanted would be your own undoing. That’s one of the many angles to take when reading Moby Dick, and the Tower of Babel is a great lens to witness Ishmael’s journey, or Ahab’s obsession. Whichever way the novel is read, it is with certainty that reading this whale of a novel needs a lens to set sail. If someone were to read this book without knowing most of the references other than the Tower of Babel, using this biblical story is a valid perspective to understand the Pequod’s chase. From Chapter 36 and onwards, Moby Dick followed a path of formation, internalization, and the collapse of unified ambition. The Pequod and the tower builders showed that not all dreams are meant to be chased. When such ambitions have risks too valuable to simply discard, such as human lives, they become soul-crushing motives. Moby Dick definitely explores this idea through Ahab and the crew of the Pequod’s perspectives, and arguably through Moby Dick’s as well. Through this lens, the novel is revealed to be merely not a novel of individual obsession but as a warning of collective imagination. Like Babel, the Pequod collapsed not because they were different, but because they believed and acted for a single, dominating vision. They were too united. Melville reimagines Genesis 11 for his modern world, which effectively spread to ours. Moby Dick showed that the combination of unity and misguided ambition is dangerous when left centralized and unchecked.

Works Cited

Fearrien, B. D. “Babel and New Jerusalem: Two Urban Expressions of Theological Contrast.” Religions, vol. 16, no. 8, 2025. MDPI, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/8/982

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale. Edited by Andrew Delbanco and Tom Quirk, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003.

Putrawan, Bobby K., Ludwig Beethoven J. Noya, and Alisaid Prawiro Negoro. “Centripetal-Centrifugal Forces in the Tower of Babel Narrative (Gen 11:1–9).” Old Testament Essays, vol. 35, no. 2, 2022, pp. 189–210. SciELO, https://scielo.org.za/pdf/ote/v35n2/04.pdf

The Holy Bible: King James Version. BibleGateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+11%3A1-9&version=KJV

Xu, Shuyang. “Ahab’s Hat Was Never Restored: The Theme of Vanity in Moby‑Dick with Reference to Ecclesiastes.” Contemporary Education Frontiers, vol. 3, no. 2, 2025. PDF, https://journal.whioce.com/index.php/cef/article/download/720/661.

final paper idea

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I am using the Tower of Babel to make connections with Moby Dick. I am still gathering the sections that support the claim that Moby Dick and the Tower of Babel are making similar moral lessons about unity and doom. I’m still not sure exactly what the claim is, but I do have the asynchronous peer review’s submission as a guide. It has something to do with Ahab and everyone else on the Pequod.

I was planning to make a creative project, but I don’t have the tools to put the effort I wish I could into it, so I’ll probably just do a formal essay.

I do wonder if I can reference the Bible despite not being a reading for the course. My only reference anyways is Genesis 11:1-9, while in Moby Dick, I have to look at Chapter 36 and Chapter 135. I’d appreciate some pointers and other chapters that may help, though these two are the most explicit I can grab from my notes.

The Gilder: Let Faith Oust Fact; Let Fancy Oust Memory

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Starbuck had been an adversary for Ahab throughout the novel, but as the voyage progressed, Starbuck could only rely on hopeful illusions to face the noxious reality. In Chapter 114, The Gilder, Melville’s use of forceful diction and stark contrasts reveals how humans cling to imagination to cope with horrifying truths.

Melville uses forceful diction to show Starbuck’s coping mechanisms. On page 535, Melville wrote in Starbuck’s perspective, “‘Loveliness unfathomable, as ever lover saw in his young bride’s eye!—Tell me not of thy teeth-tiered sharks, and thy kidnapping cannibal ways.’” “Loveliness unfathomable” tells of Starbuck wanting to believe in a positive outcome, and “Tell me not of–” tells of the truths Starbuck wants to reject; the facts that have been happening. He wants to forget and go home, a common coping mechanism for people with trauma.

Melville uses stark contrasts to show Starbuck’s mental state. He wrote Starbuck to explicitly say this because Starbuck was holding on to what little hope he had left. On page 535, Starbuck continued, “‘Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe.’” The contrasts, especially the last line, paints Starbuck’s psychological struggle and reliance on imagination. The word “oust” here means to remove, meaning Starbuck wants to replace fact with faith, and memory with “fancy”. Perhaps here, fancy means imagination, and in this case, Starbuck is saying he’d rather believe in faith and imagination than accept fact and memory. This ties into the religious context, where believing that a mental construct exists feels more satisfying than facing reality. 

Melville’s use of diction and contrasts highlights Starbuck’s mentality. The diction had shown Starbuck’s conviction with his iron-willed beliefs. The contrasts between faith/fancy and fact/memory show not only the internal conflict in Starbuck’s morals, but also how he wants to be a good man in a world of cruelty. Applicably, people in real life struggle more in living with fact and memory than believing themselves in faith and imagination.

Ebb and Flow

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In Chapter 111 on page 525, Melville wrote “The waves should rise and fall, and ebb and flow unceasingly…” It was part of a sentence, but what caught my eye is the word “should.” Why “should”? Why not “will” or “can”? But as I read further, I realized that this explains the inevitability of life itself. It is the only part of the full sentence that sounds rhythmic, like how waves themselves move. The word “unceasingly” simply means “eternal.” In other words, the waves move eternally. Adding the implication, Melville presenting the sea as a symbol of constant motion also becomes how life is in constant motion.

“The waves should rise and fall” suggests the ups and downs of life. It’s basically not normal for an entire lifespan to be completely calm and serene. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to be happy. We have emotions so we can experience life like a rollercoaster, or rather a storm in a voyage. Mistakes are made to teach. Failures and setbacks show flaws. You can strive for the calm and serene, but the journey to get there will never be.

“Ebb and flow” suggests a cycle of experiences. Many things can restart, many things can be relived. The most vivid example is the damning fact Moby Dick teaches you how to read after already knowing how to read. The phrase “ebb and flow” shows how life teaches: even with everything you have learned, there’s still thousands more to know.

Why Melville consciously chose “should” and nothing else is because life “should” rise and fall, ebb and flow, as you grow as a person.

Plato’s Honey Head

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Chapter 78 is a nice change of pace, after all the musings once again and again afterwards. There were some quotes worth mentioning, but if I had to pick only one, it would be the last sentence, “How many, think ye, have likewise fallen into Plato’s honey head, and sweetly perished there?” (p. 377) On the surface, this is about the whale Tashtego fell into, but what struck me is the specific mention of Plato… and why “honey head”?

First, the phrasing “How many, think ye, have likewise fallen…” invites us readers to think how many people fell into the very fate Tashtego would have had if Queequeg hadn’t come to save him. But the addition of “Plato’s honey head” suggests some kind of treasure, so the people who were “embalmed” by the whale’s spermaceti died comfortably? Maybe one of the things Melville is trying to say is that the whale’s spermaceti feels like honey, and when one falls into the mouth, they feel no need to escape? The last phrase, “and sweetly perished there,” suggests a “delicious” death.

Wait, the mere mention of Plato has to mean something. Plato is famous for philosophy… perhaps his thoughts were attractive to people. But some of Plato’s theories were questionable, and perhaps these theories are the “honey,” or like the whale’s spermaceti. If this is truly Melville’s intent, this chapter is about the dangers of blindly following an ideal – what seems sweet and harmless could end up being the very thing you should avoid.

Essay 1: Authority, Self-Awareness, and Obsession

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In the 19th century, authority at sea was absolute. The captains had the say in everything, and this unchecked power was a matter of life or death. Being able to lead means understanding your people’s capabilities, and in a whaling ship, the boat’s life are the shipmates, like organs in a body. As the brain, Ahab from Moby-Dick knows this, but instead, he uses his position to satisfy his vengeance and obsession. When Starbuck questioned Ahab’s pursuit, Ahab saw it as a motivation. He calls himself “demoniac” and “madness maddened,” revealing his self-awareness as part of his insanity rather than a barrier. Ahab turns his madness into justification for his actions as captain.

Ahab’s self-awareness enables his rationality to make obsessive decisions, turning his authority as captain into an outlet for vengeance. In chapter 37, Sunset, Ahab was sitting alone in his cabin, staring out the windows, when he pondered, “They think me mad—Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself!” (Melville, p. 183). The sentence “They think me mad—Starbuck does…” shows Ahab acknowledging how people see his craziness, but instead of denying it, he redefines it. By saying, “I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened!” he is claiming a higher, almost supernatural-like, form of madness. Melville’s choice of using repetition and the word “demoniac” shows how Ahab consciously justifies his abuse of authority with madness. He portrays how someone under emotional obsession can be dangerous regardless of clarity. In the phrase, ”That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself,” that calmness is not sanity but a moment of control inside insanity. Ahab acknowledges the chaos he controls rather than resists. He understands he became the embodiment of absurdity, insanity, vengeance, and obsession, and he lets it all define him. Such madness isn’t blinding Ahab; it sharpens his vision. He clearly sees what he’s doing and he still chooses destruction.

What does that have to do with life or death? Simple: if madness himself is the brain, the rest of the body is obliged to follow it. You are reading this essay because you want to understand my insight, and just now you may have been wondering what authority, obsession, and self-awareness have to do with anything, or maybe you just came here to find something to talk about in the reply section. Whatever your reason for being here, you wouldn’t have been able to if your fingers, blood, and/or nervous system refused to obey. The same goes with captains: their team, or in the context of Moby Dick, their crew would not be able to do anything without a voice to follow. However, there would be a little voice in the mind that goes against their wishes. For Ahab, that little voice of reason is Starbuck. When Ahab thought, “They think me mad–Starbuck does,” he isn’t rejecting the warning. This is the first domino to fall before the ship’s fate: as the more these two bicker, the higher chance the ship would split before Moby Dick the whale is back in the action. This reveals how obsession overrides reason and sets the crew to an inevitable downfall. The type of captain matters far more than being charismatic, and much like the captains, leadership in the historical and modern context are just as vulnerable to emotions.

During that time, royalty and those that could taste that similar power were often indulging in said power. Melville’s warning still resonates today: a leader driven by obsession leads their followers to ruin. Our politics, our social circles, our families, our social media circles like influencers, there is a reason why there are followers. For Captain Ahab, his followers are the crew of the Pequod, and with one incentive, he managed to convert regular sailors and whalehunters into soldiers to do his bidding. This is what Melville criticizes about authority: awareness without restraint, paired with obsession, is just another form of power that can destroy the very people meant to be protected.

Ahab’s Challenge

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In chapter 36, “The Quarter-Deck,” Melville almost literalizes the phrase “speak of the devil.” After Ahab said that he would reward the sailor who saw a white whale matching Moby Dick’s description, Ahab commanded, “Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out.” Shortly thereafter, the harpooners Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg spotted the white whale Ahab had described. Ahab’s phrasing also felt as if he were summoning the whale itself, like he knew it was there. The sequence of events mirrors the phrase “speak of the devil” because almost immediately after Ahab described it, Moby Dick appeared. In other words, Melville turned a familiar phrase into a narrative device.

Suspicions…

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I may be overanalyzing, but if the book’s reputation holds any weight, perhaps the fact Peleg was suspicious of Ishmael on page 79 was because pirates would use the “merchant” excuse often. Captain Peleg said, “…what makes thee want to go a whaling, eg?–it looks a little suspicious, don’t it, eh?–Hast not been a pirate, hast thou?–Didst not rob thy last Captain, didst thou?–Dost not think of murdering the officers when thou gettest to sea?” This might be foreshadowing a pirate attack, but it might also be a genuine concern at the time. Alternatively, anyone without whaling experience or from outside the local area would naturally arouse suspicion and would be excluded from the crew. This piece of dialogue reflects on the themes of danger and trust, as discord may be sown mid-journey.

Why include the gravestones?

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From the intimate relationships developments to the religious context of Jonah and the Whale, what stood out like a sore thumb was the mention of the chapel’s cemetery, “…there these silent islands of men and women sat steadfastly eyeing several marble tablets, with black borders, masoned into the wall on either side the pulpit.” (pp. 40-41) I wondered why Ishmael even read the content engraved on the stones. This early in the story and it’s already foreshadowing one of the worst possible fates… and so far we only have two characters. It’s not difficult to wonder what their future holds, but there’s always a tinge of hope that they wouldn’t. The narrator even included, “Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine,” (page 42) which doesn’t help with the “hope” part.

Overall, I can see Ishmael, Queepeg, or both dying in some way, shape, or form, just because of the mention of the graves and Ishmael’s morbid curiosity. It would be a surprise if neither of them died, though I’d expect some shipmates’ deaths.

Like a Prologue, But Interesting

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The Extracts section started with Bible verses. Maybe it was chosen to hook the reader… why else would one of the most influential books of all time be referenced? But this isn’t just for attention… all the “extracted” references hints into how and why Moby Dick is symbolic. To short references like Hamlet’s “very like a whale” to poems and action sequences in novels, this section shows how whales have been symbolic in the past and how it became even more so far after post-publication. My favorite reference was “And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?” said by Edmund Burke. It’s true, a whale takes over the title of the largest animal ever.

How did I feel or think about this? Well… I could only connect how it was symbolic. I don’t have thoughts or anything on this section unfortunately, nor do I have a notable reaction unless you’d count a blunt “oh, yeah.”