• chapter 44 The Chart
  • Ahab’s monomania seems to be something separate from the soul that also inhabits his body.
• chapter 47 The Mat-Maker
  • fate, free will, and chance operate: the warp, which is fixed in place before the weaving starts, is like fate; Ishmael’s shuttle, which he can move however he wants, is like free will; and Queequeg’s sword blows, which are somewhat random, are like chance.
• chapter 49 Hyena
  • It always makes him feel better, almost as though his death has already happened and now he’s living on borrowed time.
• chapter 50 Ahab's Boat and Crew Fedallah
  • The four rowers that Ahab secretly brought aboard the Pequod quickly find their places in the crew, but Fedallah always seems mystical and strange, both more primitive and closer to the gods than other men.
• **chapter 51 Spirit-Spout
  • Different symbolic conflicts happen here: the ship seems to be torn between rushing forward after the whale and being lifted up toward heaven by the wind, and Ahab’s walk alternates between a living leg and a dead piece of whalebone.
• Chapter 52 Albatross
  • + As the wake of the Goney (old representation of Pequod) washes past the Pequod, shoals of small fish that have been swimming alongside break away from the Pequod and arrange themselves around the Goney.
  • + Ahab is deeply saddened by this small thing and takes it as a bad omen.
  • + Ahab draws strength from somewhere and orders them to keep sailing "round the world."
  • Ishmael wishes it were really a voyage of discovery instead of an insane revenge quest.

Fate vs. Choice. You can make the choice to return back or play along with fate and settle for your doom. He has the choice to repress his will/desires stemmed from his destiny or give up his fate and not act and return, there is always a choice but it could be disguised under fate and chance -- the ocean.

• Chapter 58 Brit
  • *Ishmael compares the horrifying power of the sea, surrounding the more-easily-tamable land, to [deep ominous voice] the human soul.

- perhaps the soul that Ahab tries to find or gain back through the ocean cannot be attainable -- rather it is unobtainable and lost forever in the deep depths of the sea, and being swallowed by it is his only fate if he tries to grasp something so fluid and non-concrete. He can always return back to the tamable, solid land and relinquish his quest from the Pequod but that means giving up the life he had but lost in sea.

• chapter 60 The Line
  • After all, Ishmael, he muses:"all men live enveloped in whale-lines. __All are born with halters round their necks__" (60.9).