"He piled upon the white hump of the whale the sum of all the general rage and hatred felt by his whole race from Adam down and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst the shell of his burning heart upon it. This was Melville's description of Captain Ahab. The symbolism suggested by this statement, as well as many other examples of. symbolism, are incorporated into Moby Dick Even though the crew knew that Ahab was obsessed with revenge and was not interested in killing Moby Dick to obtain whale oil, they nevertheless felt obligated to follow his orders. They knew that the regulations stipulated that if a captain violated his contract due to personal feelings, they were obligated to take the command away from him. This idea symbolizes the emotional attachment we have to those around us and also demonstrates the mixed feelings. that we feel when someone we respect does something wrong. Ultimately, this emotional attachment destroyed the crew. Starbuck had a golden opportunity to kill Ahab, but for his own salvation he compromised the good of the crew and chose to leave the captain alive. So part of the lesson of Moby Dick is not to let feelings and personal feelings get in the way of our duty. The absence of this lesson among the crew destroyed Ahab and the entire ship, except Ishmael. When Captain Ahab stabbed Moby Dick with the harpoon, he symbolized the power of obsession when a person lets it take over their mind. Ahab had no chance of killing Moby Dick, but he embarked on his suicide plan by stabbing the whale. This lesson in not letting obsession take over your mind is similar to Javert's obsession with justice and Valjean's imprisonment in Les Misérables. This shows that a passion accompanied by a personal vendetta will ultimately destroy a person, whether it destroys them physically or mentally. Moby Dick was also a mixed symbol. It seemed clear to the Pequod's crew that whales were evil and that whales were the enemy. However, white is a symbol of good, so one could conclude that Moby Dick was a symbol of both good and evil. When Moby Dick killed Ahab, he gave Ahab his just reward for acting out of revenge, which could be interpreted as an act of good. When Moby Dick killed all but one of the crew, it showed that he may be evil, even though he was only acting on instinct, thinking his life was threatened..