Sermonic Possession

In Jacob's post titled "Chapter 9," he analyzed aspects of the sermon in relation to what role the sermon played in the novel. I am inclined to think that the Sermon, while serving a number of purposes in the arc of the story and the depths of its meaning, is at least in part an instance of allegorical foreshadowing. The story of Jonah and the whale as told by the preacher is strongly related to the fate of Ahab and Moby Dick, in the sense that both men were sinful and decided to shirk the commands of God, which seemingly resulted in their related interactions with their respective leviathans. I find it more interesting, however, that some of the allegorical interpretations of Moby Dick (as nature incarnate, or God) seem to echo the lesson of Jonah; that resistance to God or nature based in the will of man is futile. The allegorical meaning is further strengthened in the comparison of the two characters, Jonah and Ahab, in the sense that Jonah was delievered from the whale (and his demise) after his sincere repentence to God, whereas Ahab never repents from his megalomaniac actions and proudly dies in pursuit of his whale instead.