t use this simply to symbolize a lesson on other cultures. Throughout the novel, non-Christian societies are linked to evil behavior. With the exception of Queequeg, equating the pagan characters with Satan does align with the general religious overtones of the novel. Initially, Ishmael is swept totally into the compelling scope of Ahab's quest. "I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more did I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread in my soul. A wild, mystical sympathetical feeling was in me; Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine" (Bickman. 33). Unlike most fictional narrators, Ishmael is not merely a surrogate for an absentee author. As a narrator, Ishmael enters more deeply into his symbolic world and increasingly becomes a presence, a visionary activity, instead of a man that we lose interest in as an individual, yet even Ishmael the sailor almost drops from the story. " It is Melville's own voice that utters the passage on the heroic stature of Ahab. This apparent violation of narrative Standpoint is really a natural consequence of the symbolic method of Moby Dick"
             (Rountree. 83). It seems to me that the whole book, though cast in the form of historical narrative, tends to the conditioning of drama in the sense that it is a presentation, like Ishmael's vision of the whale processions, in which both Melville and Ishmael loose themselves.
             In my opinion, the sea represents a transitional place between two distinct states. This is shown early on in the novel in the case of Queequeg and the other Isolatoes (Daggoo and Tashtego) who represent the transition from uncivilized to civilized societies unbound by any specific nationality, yet in an overwhelming amount of cases, this transitional theme relates to the unstable line between life and death. There are many characters ...