Moby Dick and the Screvener's Dissatisfaction in New York City

mat ias: Ishmael felt alienated and detached from the nine to five kind of work grind that he sees his peers having to participate in in new york city. That's actually what makes him look out to the sea and out k a different kind of exist ance, and what makes him ultimately join is the fated whaling voyage. Mat ias: The tension between sort of your own, you know, manifest destiny, the frontier spirit as an individual, and then the reality of like working as a copyist, as a scrivener was something melville recognized and put his pulse on.