My Review of Moby-Dick

Even though we only read select chapters in it, I'm pretty sure Moby-Dick was one of the worst books I've ever read in school. The first day, we were required to read the first chapter, and I was bored and confused after the first paragraph. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy we only read select chapters, but I would have been happier if we didn't read it at all. You'd think a book considered a literary classic would have been written better. The language was so thick, I think Nathaniel Hawthorne or Henry David Thoreau would have been easier to read. One of the main reasons we skipped around was that half the book wasn't even part of the story; it was just explaining whaling and whale anatomy and other things that are probably too detailed to be included in a story. It took all of my attention and energy to just move my eyes across the page, and even then I had no idea what I just read. Now, let's talk about the ending. The captain of the ship, Ahab, was obsessed with killing the whale that took his leg when he was a younger man. Though his obsession was interesting to study, the resolution was not. His ship eventually finds the White Whale, but after three days of close pursuit and combat, *SPOILER ALERT* Moby-Dick rams his ship and sinks it, and then destroys the smaller whaling boat that Ahab is on. So, up until the epilogue, everyone is dead. Great story. Fantastic. Even though the narrator, Ishmael, survives the wreck in the epilogue, I feel like this whole book has been a waste of my time. So this guy is obsessed with whales, and so he spends years leading his crew to their certain death, and then everybody dies. In language I can barely understand. *sigh.* Herman Melville, I'm going to your gravesite, and you and me are going to have words.