I mean I may be misunderstanding the novel here but wasn't a key theme of Moby Dick that hunting the white whale was a fool's errand that doomed the crew and Ahab?
Not sure why Ishmael would gain redemption by doing the same thing as Ahab?
Nantucket Dev here. I'll try to add a different point of view to the discussion. I believe one of the focal theme of the novel is destiny. Our Ishmael, at the beginning of the game, remembers the part narrated in Moby Dick when Ahab tempers in blood the harpoons, in which the captain says "And may God hunt us all if we do not hunt Moby Dick to the death!". We then make him quote the Bible "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord". Ishmael feels cursed, by Ahab, for surviving the final stand against Moby Dick, and by God, for following Ahab in his madness.
So, he wants God forgiveness, he could have joined a monastery, yes. We decided he took the sea and try to fulfill the promise made on the Pequod in order to take again control of his destiny.
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