A Man Called by the Waters
Ishmael begins this first chapter by describing the waters as his escape. For every negative event that impacts his life, for every time he feels grim, for every time the weather is intolerable, he finds the waters as his release. While others may find the comfort of shooting guns or playing sports, he finds going to the see as the greatest joy he can experience. He then shares a very vivid image of the ocean. Despite how the ocean may seem to be an endless blue, he finds each aspect, each avenue of any kind of body of water to be enchanting. Where the waves and breeze cannot match anything you find in the city streets, where people often clamor to go to beaches or take a swim at lakes, people who travel thousands of miles to see something like the Niagara Falls, he tells us how people have always been attracted to the waters. He slowly brings the reader to experience what he experiences, the majesty of finding something as beautiful as an ocean. Even historically, great nations revered the water, made gods for them and called them sacred. People of the past worshipped, feared and dared to conquer the seas.
Ishmael then describes himself as not simply a passenger. He does not pay and feels like it’s his responsibility to be aware that he gets the experience that is …show more content…
He does care for the reverie he attains when he goes in the open sea and part of this because of his love for adventure and mystery. He wants to brave the waters because you never know what to expect. A place where there is something larger than him, where the waters can easily grasp his life. Then of course there is the mystery of the large creatures that are whales. The large and at times terrifying creature is a constant reminder of how little we truly