This universe was created with the intention of it to be comprised of infinite meanings, but man if constantly settling upon one specific meaning. Melville suggests, in Moby Dick, that every event and every object have various meanings. The way an individual lives their life rests only upon their shoulders. Yes, God has already mapped out our lives, as we are here on this earth just mere puppets acting out this inevitable play we call our lives, but it is up to us how we get there. If one goes through life seeing it as just black and white they will certainly miss the meanings that every object or event is comprised of.
             It is because of Ishmael's all-encompassing view on life that allows to be saved in the end. He strives to understand the reasons and interpretations a specific occurrence that happens where other characters, like Ahab, designate one reason for an act. Ishmael goes to sea to escape the world around him and to reflect on the fundamental meanings of the world. While reading this novel, Melville gives the sea a whole other meaning. I see the sea as a vast body of water that makes up 75% of the world. Melville, on the other hand, portrays the sea as representing the difficulty of life's meaning, the terror in which man must experience throughout life's journey, and possibly the one way man can understand life. In the chapter thirteen Melville says, "How I snuffed that Tartar air! -how I spurned that turnpike earth! - that common highway all over dented with the marks of slavish heels and hoofs; and turned to me to admire the magnanimity of the sea which will permit no records." What Melville is saying is that land is corrupt with stuff from the past that one can not fully understand life, but the sea leaves no marks and while at sea you can learn the importance of life. Ahab views the sea as the place where he must go to seek his vengeance, not the meaning of life. His meaning of li...