In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the narrator, Ishmael, takes an adventure on board a whale-hunting ship Pequod. After a long sail aiming at hunting a white whale called Moby Dick, Pequod finally met it and was destroyed in the fight with it. The final fate of Pequod seems to be determined at the beginning of the novel and cannot possibly be avoided because the whole novel is enveloped in a gloomy and ominous atmosphere. From the text of the novel, we can clearly get a sense that people on board Pequod do not have control over their own fates and that all characters are doomed to die. The reason the author delivers such a feeling to readers is not hard to understand. The novel is written in the 19th century, at a time when colonialism and capitalism were prevalent in the Western world. However, some latent dangers were involved in the expansion of the modern capitalist society. For instance, the relationship between human beings did not develop as fast as the social desire for capital, which caused more severe unfairness in society and little control over their own lives. By describing the story of whaling, the author wanted to warn people that the direction in which society was moving was not as good as people expected. People need to slow down and rethink the expansion of the world so that they can avoid the final catastrophe of the entire society, as in the story of Pequod.

Pequod, the ship, as a closed community with its internal hierarchy and power structures, constructs a microcosm. In this microcosm, crews are divided into different social hierarchies according to the power they obtain. The lower class, people like the sailor Pip, are often ignored by leaders like Captain Ahab. From Captain Ahab's point of view, Pequod is like a machine serving his ultimate aim; other people are just tools that can be overlooked and controlled by him. Such a setting of the hierarchy system in Pequod delivers to us the sense in which the ship itself is a microcosm of the capitalist society. Nonetheless, there is an interesting fact that Ahab and Pip, one from the highest class on board and one from the lowest class on board, who should not be expected to have close connections, actually have frequent contact and special relationships. This is a puzzle that is worthwhile for deeper investigation. Focusing on this relationship, I will first analyze the symbolic significance of Pip's class, consider the loss of power of his class, and then discuss how it evolves to the loss of his humanity and distinctiveness. By doing that, we will see their different abilities to dominate their own destiny because of the difference in their social status. This will finally lead us to the answer to the question of what opinions towards society the author wants to convey to us through this peculiar novel.

Moby Dick is the name of the novel, also the prey for Pequod, the target for Ahab's voyage, and the main aim of this adventure. However, Moby Dick did not appear until the last several chapters and did not have the opportunity to speak anything for itself. It has to keep silence as a response. This silence is a metaphor for a prevailing phenomenon in the nature as well as the society. Most creatures in nature are objectives being chased by human beings without giving any effective response, just like people in the subordinated class in society have their fate controlled by the dominating class without any of their own ideas expressed.

If we apply such an analysis to the microcosm of Pequod, we will see that Captain Ahab actually occupies the center of power, controls all crews on the ship, and determines the direction of the sail. "For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab." (Melville, 107) Noticing that he is such a tyrannical controller who will never compromise others' opinions, the ship and all crews are just machines used for Ahab's aim, with their fate tightly tied to Ahab's. They are compelled to be silent because Ahab ignores their voices. For instance, under the circumstance that Starbucks suggests Ahab "up Burtons and break out" for several days in order to save their oil from leaking out, Ahab's response is just" 'Devils! Dost thou then so much as dare to critically think of me?—On deck!' ". This is obviously an unreasonable and irrational answer from Ahab. However, when Starbucks "entreat" to "understand each other better than hitherto," what happens following is "Ahab seized a loaded musket from the rack [...], and pointing it towards Starbuck, exclaimed: 'There is one God that is Lord over the earth, and one Captain that is lord over the Pequod.—On deck!'" (Melville, 391) On Pequod, whoever has ideas conflicting with Ahab's will not survive unless they express them and are silent, even Chief Mate Starbucks. The lack of agency in their own opinions makes them no different from the silent whale being chased by them.

In this system of dynamic silence, Pip is actually one of the people who can not express themselves. Unlike Moby Dick, Pip even does not have the power to fight back using his "broad white forehead." Pip has to accept the destiny determined by others and lose himself in order to fit the character he was assigned by fate.

At the beginning of the novel, when Pip has not fully integrated into the society of Pequod, he has a colorful personality. "Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe. [...] Pip loved life, and all life's peaceable securities" (Melville, 341). He was a person who could always create a positive effect on people around him. The very first appearance of Pip is suffused with vitality and energy, "On the grim Pequod's forecastle, ye shall ere long see him, beating his tambourine; prelusive of the eternal time, when sent for, to the great quarter-deck on high, he was bid strike in with angels and beat his tambourine in glory." It is not hard for us to imagine such a happy person in our mind from this description. However, such a happy character was alienated during the journey. The cherished personalities declined when he tried to join the society and were totally eliminated after he was cast away from the boat. In the scenario where crews gather together for a party at the fore-top, the gloomy part of Pip emerges: when he is asked to "hurrah with your tambourine," his response is " '(Sulky and sleepy.) Don't know where it is.'" (Melville, 143). From this fact, we can see that the life on board gradually wears down his excitement, and the last straw is his dropping into the water. After his castaway, he loses his recognizance of himself, and whenever he meets a person, Pip asks him to "seek out one Pip, who's now been missing long" (Melville, 395). Moreover, he no longer cherishes his previous characteristics. Rather, he regards himself as a runaway, a coward and is ashamed of himself. This provides a sharp contrast to the innocence and happiness in his mind before. It seems that nothing of Pip's previous humanity was left after his dropping into the water.

So why does this dramatic transformation happen? One can find the answer from the analysis of Pip's social status on Pequod and the change of self-identification of such status. Pip's work is not important on board. He is a ship-keeper who "works the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale." The insignificance of his job makes him the background for the whale-hunting business. This fact determines that he can not have a high social position as powerful as Chief Mate Starbuck. Consequently, he lacks the agency of his own voice, and even his life is indifferent to the leaders of Pequod. Thus, in the situation that saving his life will obstruct the process of chasing whales, the leader, like Stubb, will hesitate to save him. At this time, his survival entirely depends on the mercy of crews, depends on whether leaders would like to listen to his voice, and depends on whether his existence will meet Ahab's goal, namely, hunting Moby Dick. Pip's previous characters, though good from the perspective of human beings, may not be of utility in such a society as Pequod. Thus, in order to survive, since there are conflicts between Pip's initial characters and the properties required by Pequod, Pip has to give up his own personality. The result of this process is that he is alienated from his original humanity.

After the moment Pip was cast away, he realized the weakness of his social status and the cruelty of societies like Pequod, that he does not have the power to control his own life, not to say to create a future following his own mind. With that being noticed, from his innocent personality, he repeatedly points out this fact by continuously asking, "Who's seen Pip?". (Melville, 436) In action, he also presents a character that is opposite to the previous one. He starts to hate the former Pip, "an unduly slender, clumsy, or timorous wight," and regards himself as a coward to be shamed on.

On the other hand, Pip starts to realize that the people in the class with higher control power may have great significance in this society, and consequently, he regards Ahab, the center of the power on Pequod, as the person with the most significance in his life. From there, a close father-son-like relationship is established between Ahab and Pip. This relationship is uncommon because Pip is from the lowest class, while Ahab settles at the peak of power on Pequod, and they are different from each other in so many aspects. However, they agree on one point: that Pequod is a society with a strict hierarchy; in other words, they share the same worldview about the role of power in a society, that everyone should be subordinate to the center of power. Namely, they both need Captain Ahab's power to be completely confirmed and unquestioned on Pequod. Ahab follows it in the action side, while Pip points it out from the mind side by declaring an absolute loyalty to Ahab and saying," 'I will never desert ye, sir, as Stubb did him. Sir, I must go with ye.' [...] 'Oh good master, master, master!' ". (Melville, 436) These words from Pip exactly meet Ahab's demand for ego satisfaction and become a base for their father-son-like relationship. The consequence of this relationship is the further solidification of Ahab's dictation and Pip's loss of distinctiveness.

Now, let's consider the social hierarchy and the power structure of Pequod. Aren't they just the social hierarchy and the power structure in the capitalist society? The power of the capitalist society is concentrated in the hands of monopoly capitalists. The number of them is small, but their capital can determine the direction of development of the entire society, just like Ahab on Pequod. If the aim of these rulers deviates from the increase in happiness for all people, then an inevitable disaster will cover society. Like on Pequod, because Ahab's purpose is just revenge for himself, all the crew have to be buried under the ocean accompanied by him. There are too many real examples, such as the Pequod, that happened, such as the World War, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and so on, in which the happiness and humanity of ordinary people are buried with the unrealistic desire of the ruling class. The time point when Moby Dick was written is near the peak of modern capitalist society expansion, and the abnormal speed and deviated direction of social development were creating hidden dangers for the later world. With that in mind, it is not hard for us to regard the disaster of Pequod as a metaphor for the real world and realize that the ominous delivered by the author reflects his dissatisfaction with capitalism. Finally, in Melville's writing, he roars to this society by destroying Pequod with the counterattack of Moby Dick. Then suddenly, "all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago," and this silent roar remains forever under the sea. (Melville, 469)

In conclusion, we see that hidden in the tedious text of Moby Dick, Melville delivers a thinking in-depth. He projects the complex hierarchy structure of the society onto a closed microcosm of Pequod. Through the description of specific relationships in this little community, such as Pip and Ahab, he depicts common social facts like people being alienated. Therefore, after closing this book and rethinking it, we will definitely be amazed by the proficiency of Melville's great novels.