Moby Dick Research Paper

Discuss the key symbols in the film (like the white whale); what do they represent? Does the film deal with class issues?
In watching the movie 2010:Moby Dick, I found a lot of religious symbolism surrounding Moby Dick , the colors black and white, and the depths and shallows of the ocean. Moby Dick, the white whale, appears to represent the unknown, specifically in spirituality. He is the epitome of an unknowable God to everyone in the movie, with the exception of Ahab, who quotes that “…he’s not a whale; he’s the devil himself”. Near the beginning of the movie when a Russian witness is being questioned about Moby Dick’s attack, she trembles when she was asked if the whale was black and she responded “It was white.” Outside of the room she was recovering in there was a picture of a black boy on a white sidewalk with a whited-out background and a white frame on a white wall. The poster read “Being safe doesn’t end when you leave work.” Moby Dick’s
The depths of the ocean also represent the extent of the unknowable and mysterious, what cannot be seen our understood by humans. Near the end of the movie Moby Dick lures Ahab into the shallows then surfaces to fully reveal himself; Ahab states that Moby Dick is teasing him, and only now does Ahab fully see the whale with complete clarity. It is almost as if Moby Dick is now mocking Ahab with an impending fate (like the Grim Reaper arriving to escort the deceased). Regardless of the countless scars and teeth and harpoons gouged all over Moby Dick’s body, he is fully vigilant and seemingly invincible. Needless to say, Ahab is killed by Moby Dick shortly afterwards, and the whale carries on