Reading the article on “What “Moby Dick” Means to Me” made me think of myself and how I hope to portray it now in my life. I remember starting this book in high schol and just not getting it and probably only had read a handful of chapters before my teacher changed what we were reading. All I could remember was that it was boring then and all I knew was that there was a giant whale in the book that did things to the men in the book. I didn’t have such a great view of the book from back then but now that I am in college I hope I can see this book with a new mindset.

Philip Hoare the writer of this article was even put off by the book when he was a kid and he even said that the book was “difficult” which I can agree with as well as many others. And as we grow older, so does our knowledge so we can see things with a new view. Hoare stated that Moby Dick is neither a book or a novel but, “It’s more an act of transference, of ideas and evocations hung around the vast and unknowable shape of the whale, an extended musing on the strange meeting of human history and natural history,” which I can totally agree with. At first when I read that line, I thought I knew what is he talking about but after processing it a bit more, I think Hoare is trying to tell us that the story has a lot of depth of thought and history within which can be complicated to understand. He even says later on when he had picked up the book again, he did not want to put it down and he was fully invested. It must have clicked for him and I can hope it can be like that for me as well.

From what I know so far about this book, I can see Moby Dick as a fictional story which can teach us lessons as we read the 800 page book about man, a whale and nature. I know I might get bored through out the book with descriptions of whaling and sorts, but I am very interested to see how this book plays out to understand why so many people and our professor love this book so much. I am excited to see how this book plays out and to disect the book with everyone.