【正确答案】正确答案：Melville"s Moby Dick is one of the world"s greatest masterpieces. It tells the voyage of the Pequod. The ship has rich symbolic meanings. First, it is the symbol of alienation. Cut from the shore, it is far away from the human society. It symbolizes the indifference and coldness between one another. For example, Captain Ahab stays away most of the time from his crew. He is buried in his own hate and revenge. It seems that nobody has ever come into his heart. Second, the ship is the symbol of one microcosm of society. Though it is far away from the human mass, the ship is never short of human beings. The crew come from different places of the world and there is as much cooperation as competition. They work together to catch the whale and carry out the afterward procedures, which demand a strong cooperation among the crew. They compete with each other to be the first to see the white whale, so as to win the doubloon Ahab has promised. Third, the ship is the symbol of doom. Named after a Native American tribe in Massachusetts that did not long survive after the arrival of white men and thus memorializing an extinction, the Pequod is a symbol of doom. It is painted a gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones, literally bristling with the mementos of violent death. It is, in fact, marked for death. Adorned like a primitive coffin, the Pequod becomes one. Fourth, the ship is the symbol of quest. It sails on the boundless ocean and symbolizes human"s everlasting efforts to seek the ultimate truth of our experience. For example, Ishmael could not reconcile himself to the lives without many happenings. He wants to know more about life and nature and that is why he boards on the Pequod in the first place.