NCHS AP English Language

Mark of Cain (Chris Fitzer)

In Genesis, Cain and Abel are the cursed children of Adam and Eve, so cursed that even something as horrid as fratricide was eminemt. Cain, the farmer, murders his brother, the shepherd, out of jealous for God choosing Abel's sacrifice and condemning Cain's. After Cain is banished for his sins, God marks him [Mark of Cain] to portect him from being attacked the same way that Abel was. The Mark of Cain depriction is used as an emblem and closely associated with the trades of blacksmithing and industry, as well as sorcery and alchemy. Because Cain as the farmer used more technology than Abel, his craftsmanship is often revered and thusly used to represent those fields of business. In Moby Dick Ahab is marked with a scar that streaches from his head to his feet. This mark [of Cain] obviously relates to some divine protection or expected reverence, the same protection that God gave to Cain. There are two foreshadowing possibilities that I feel could result from the realization of the significance. Either if the scar came from an accident from before the Ahab's attack by Moby Dick, then since Moby Dick had ignored the protection guaranteed by this mark when he ripped of Ahab's leg, Ahab now is going back to kill mOby Dick for his irreverence. The Other possiblity is that the scar resulted from the attack by Moby Dick, and in that instance if during Ahab's second encounter, Moby Dick chooses to ignore the significance and power of the mark then he will receive an eminemt unfortune, like the crew revolting to kill the whale or some divine interaction.

Interesting fact: The mysticism of Kabbalah is closely associated with the mark of cain. But in Kabbalah he is renamed Moloch, which has the same Hebrew meaning as Cain, and was seen as a diety. In the Phoenician Trinitarian Diety, Moloch is also called Baal, the same pagan god that King Ahab of Israel once believed in. In that sense Captain Ahab is marked with the mark of Baal, the false god that he blindly follows.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 8:44 AM