MC Lars's Song 'Ahab'

The song “Ahab” by MC Lars, is an upbeat hip-hop song that raps about Ahab’s single-minded obsession on finding Moby Dick. Lyrics such as, “’You're never going to find him!’ He's a big sperm whale ‘The ocean is enormous!’ Shut up, we're setting sail,’” (MC Lars) describes how much Ahab was pressuring his crew to continue the voyage to find the whale. Ahab would go risk his life, and of his crew members, through dangerous journeys just to fulfil his mission of confronting the sperm whale; that’s how crazy he was. The song takes in consideration Ahab’s unstable mental state when it says, “Mental sickness has got me on the run,” (MC Lars) which parallels with the stupidity of the song. Anyone who actually enjoys this “rap” must be out of their

The whole plot to the book is for Ahab to fight the sperm whale and take revenge on what Moby Dick did to him. However, Ahab has never seen the whale before, which emphasizes the stupidity there is to go on a life-ending journey to fight a figure that might not even exist. The music video does justice to Ahab’s reasoning because everything is not thought out through; Ahab has to ask his crewmen in Chapter thirty-six such as “what do you do when you spot a whale?” and “what do you do next?” (Melville 178). The captain himself does not even know what to do once he confronts the whale, his blueprints are not well designed but still goes on the voyage. With Ahab’s obsession over the whale, it demonstrates how complicated, deep and tortured soul he is. He himself knows he is mad but cannot stop himself from ending the mission, he must continue in order to have peace once

Ahab is no longer in control of his fate, “What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me?” (Melville 599-600). The song emphasizes how the force behind Ahab’s motivation is a dominating master when it states, “Has scarred my soul and inspired me this chase” (MC Lars). Ahab’s quest is almost God-like, as he decides to go against God when he tries to strike Moby Dick, signifying that man should control nature. He believes the force is evil and the whale is the force behind the mask and for that reason, he must go out and kill it. Likewise, Ahab also believes that the force is out there trying to injure him, to confine his role in the world and for that, he must defeat that force before he is dead in order for his mindset to be at ease. He does not want nature to overtake man and fill the world with evil, so he is persistent in killing the whale because Moby Dick is that representation of that evil force. Some of the crewmen felt that Ahab obsession was blasphemous, going against Christian teachings, however he did not care what his crewmen thought about his logic not was he whaling for profit, he was willing do anything for vengeance on what the whale did to him. Perhaps Ahab is fighting an evil force or perhaps he is fighting himself, but either way his quest is bold