Read the passage from Moby-D in which Ahab, standing on deck of the Pequod, describes the wind. What wider concept does the wind symbolize in this story?

Were I the wind, I’d blow no more on such a wicked, miserable world. I’d crawl somewhere to a cave, and slink there. And yet, ’tis a noble and heroic thing, the wind! who ever conquered it? In every fight it has the last and bitterest blow. Run tilting at it, and you but run through it. Ha! a coward wind that strikes stark-naked men, but will not stand to receive a single blow.


A.the widespread nature of sin

B.man’s isolation from others

C.the unstoppable forces of nature

D.the unknowable nature of man’s inner thoughts