After reading through chapter 135, there is this particular passage that quite confuses me, but as I tried to figure out the meanings behind it, I believe that Melville is trying to build up tension for the audience as we are about to reach the end. The passage states, “How the wild winds blow it; they whip it about me as the torn shreds to of split sails lash the tossed ship they cling to. A vile wind that has no doubt blown ere this through prison corridors and cells, and wards of hospitals, and ventilated them, and now comes blowing hither as innocent as fleeces. Out upon it!-It’s tainted. Were I the wind, I’d blow no more on such a wicked, miserable world.” (Melville 614). This passage fascinates me because it makes me feel like I am reading poetry. But why does it feel poetic? Is there more behind this particular passage? I think perhaps Melville is trying to use imagery for the audience to feel and see what the wind felt like while you are out at sea. He calls the wind ‘vile’ because it has so much freedom to go anywhere it wants while it pierces through Ishmael’s heart and soul. There is some sort of parallel here between the wind and the crew, where the wind is full of freedom and the crew is stuck out in the sea for eternity. Though the last line is interesting because there is a sense of selfishness here, coming from Ishmael. His negative mindset about the world makes me wonder why he thinks such negative thoughts. Perhaps it is because Ishmael has been out in the sea for so long that his mindset sort of change due to all the hunting. It makes him depressed and view the world more negatively. It almost feels like he is no longer himself.