Mary's Midterm 2 Moby Dick Pre-writing

Here are some of my thoughts for my paper.

In class we discussed how machines are like mirrors in a way; they reflect ourselves back to us. They help us gain self-understanding, but we can't fully master them. Moby Dick is a symbol throughout the novel to Ahab, Ishmael, and the readers of whatever we want him to be. We use symbols as tools to represent what we want them to represent. I think Ahab uses Moby Dick as a tool/machine to represent himself/self-loathing/evil. Ahab sees himself reflected in Moby Dick. But because Moby Dick is a machine, Ahab is never able to master him, or if Moby Dick is a symbol for Ahab, then Ahab can never fully master himself or at least the dark parts of himself. It's significant that Ahab has an ivory leg. He sees more of himself in MD because of this.

In a way Ahab sees everyone as a tool or machine. He sees them all the tools of destiny or fate. He uses his crew, his charts, compass, etc. to hunt down Moby Dick. In a way, man is the lesser machine in the novel and nature (Moby Dick) is the greater machine. This brings up the whole human vs. nature debate. And In our own lives with the technology we have, aren't we the lesser machines? I mean the machines we design have far greater capacities than we do. So maybe Moby Dick then is the machine Ahab designs in way, the symbolism he places on Moby Dick gives Moby Dick a life, meaning, etc. that he wouldn't have in the story otherwise. Moby Dick could have just been any other sperm whale, a white one, but just another whale in essence. But because Ahab uses Moby Dick as machine/tool as a symbol for his self-loathing/evil, Ahab really kind of creates Moby Dick. Frankenstein?

Another point with machines/tools and humans: why are humans pitted against machines? We create machines after all, yet in our culture there are several movies where humans are at war with machines. Where does this enmity come from? Maybe humans envy machines because of their greater capacity. Maybe Ahab envies Moby Dick. There is the speech he gives on the deck talking about sperm whales and their unknown world, everything they've seen and experienced, knowledge they have that man will never know. Maybe Ahab envies this. One thing that seems to separate human and machine is passion and purpose. Machines don't have a passion or self-purpose (we create machines for a purpose, but they don't have one on their own). Ironically, Ahab's own passion to hunt for Moby Dick really turns Ahab into a machine. He abandons his wife and child, endangers his crew, and become inhumane. He then pursues a single-minded ultimately meaningless objective to kill Moby Dick. Aren't machines designed to pursue single-minded objectives until they accomplish their assigned task?

So back to digital culture: we use so many social media tools that reflect ourselves back to us. Although we don't use social media with the intent to destroy it, we maybe use it as a machine to represent ourselves and in a way find ourselves or come to understand ourselves. But we cannot fully master our digital culture or social media because it is a mirror of us. And like Ahab maybe this means we can't fully master ourselves. Maybe that's why we spend hours and hours on the internet, creating profiles, and sharing our thoughts with others. Moby Dick is like a mirror for Ahab and our digital culture is like a mirror for us as individuals and as a people.  

So that was long and convoluted, but hopefully you all understand what I'm trying to get at. What are your thoughts?