Yes!! So well written is your review, good brother. You properly tie Melville's grand subject matter to scripture without stretching the point. The futility of the Law and despair of death is so adequately illustrated in the sacrificial capture and death of the old whale midway through. I call him the omen whale, as his death portends the fatal end God has in store for the Pequod and its crew.

The old whale is described in very human terms... remorseful, repentant and crippled with age he swam awkwardly and desperately with one lame fin... saving his extended family from the harpoon as he fell behind them to meet his fate. Then, in death, he almost sinks the Pequod and is himself laid to waste.

Thanks again for this. I finally read Moby Dick for first time less that ten years ago. Nobody should go through life without reading it. It is truly a great American novel.