Read the excerpt from Chapter 28 of Moby-Dick.It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom, ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded.Melville’s description of Ahab’s scar in this excerpt best develops which theme in the novel?
Answer
A
the ability of man to let go of past wounds
B
the harmony that exists between man and nature
C
the ruling of man’s present by his past wounds
D
the destructive power of man’s technologies
Explanation
The scar is compared to a lightning strike that marks a tree but leaves it alive. This image suggests that Ahab has survived his injury, yet remains permanently branded by it. The description develops the theme that past wounds continue to shape and rule a person’s present, rather than showing that he has let them go.
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