Born Again

When I finally finished Moby Dick and after our class discussion on the rich symbolism that is present within the novel, I could not stop thinking about the image that was depicted in the point of the story concerning Queequeg and the coffin.  Queequeg has the coffin made for him when he falls ill and becomes unsure that he will be able to continue on with the journey. But when he does get better he places all of his old belongings in the coffin, and in a way leaves a part of his old self in the coffin rising out from it as a new person, a new individual.

For me personally, this answered the complicated question that has been brought up many times during our class discussion concerning the struggle that surrounds reading Mobby Dick. I feel like the experience that I as a reader reading Moby Dick was similar to the experience as Queequeg experiences with his coffin as a felt a  born again feeling as I finished the novel.  Though Moby Dick could at times be a dry and long novel, it somehow manages to change us as a reader at the end of the novel where we do realize that as we reached the end of our journey through the novel the amazing symbolism, motifs, and themes that are present throughout Moby Dick. And like Queequeg, we as a reader are able to walk away from Moby Dick as a different person, with a new perspective in life rising out of our coffins.