Moby-Dick

Another American tragedy of obsession — Gatsby's dream and Ahab's quest are structurally identical; both men die for what they refuse to relinquish

Another voyage into moral darkness, another charismatic figure (Kurtz) whose obsession destroys him, another narrator who survived to question whether the quest was madness or grandeur

McCarthy's Judge Holden inherits Ahab's grandeur and strips it of all ambivalence — where Ahab hunts meaning, the Judge hunts for the pure pleasure of destruction

Ahab's defiance consciously echoes Satan's — 'better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.' Melville is explicitly in dialogue with Milton's theodicy.

Hemingway's stripped-down anti-Melville — the same man versus nature confrontation told in 130 pages with almost no words. The two novels define the poles of American prose style.

The original monomaniac chasing an obsessive quest that others see as madness — Ahab is Don Quixote with genuine menace added, and with the ability to drag everyone else into his delusion