Contained in the text of Moby Dick, Herman Melville uses many broadly cultural symbols, stories, and actions to tell the story of a whaling ship bent to its captains' horror-stricken desire for a true, and also symbolic, creature in the form of an albino sperm whale named Moby Dick. It is 1851 and civil unrest is looming on the horizon: slavery is the main point of interest in American politics, the last great novel published was The Scarlet Letter, Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th president following the premature death of then-President Zachary Taylor; the Fugitive Slave Act legally mandates that all fugitive slaves be returned to their owners (regardless of the state of the union in which they were found); and religion is a driving force that defines both social and political actions. These, among other things, influenced and determined the cultural climate of the United States found in Moby Dick. Herman Melville similarly uses an isolated boat to create and explore a microcosm of American culture and civilization. The story of Moby Dick is more than a tale of revenge, but an allegory of American culture and political unrest. In the American culture of 1851, slavery was the main topic. Lines were drawn in the proverbial sand, as the Civil War was only a decade away from breaking out. The Fugitive Slave Act had been passed just the year before and made all union slaves prisoners, regardless of what land they were on. Running was no use and hiding was the only option if they wanted to escape the cruel hand that yielded the whip. Melville attempted to create an allegorical story in the text of Moby Dick that taught tolerance in many forms. Culturally speaking, slavery would have been at the forefront of everyone's minds. The argument... halfway through the document... is that perhaps if America had been willing to seek help from an outside source, the growing tension between the North and the South could have been eased before it descended into civil war American. millions died in the civil war. Armed with an understanding of how the American people think and operate culturally, Melville was able to create, in fiction, an allegory for slavery, tolerance, leadership, and the political climate of America. Using religious tools he was able to create an epic that would not only entertain audiences but also give them reason to examine their own particular brand of cultural and political views. His ideas of equality were far from progressive at that time to be accepted by society as a whole, although perhaps with his allegorical words he managed to convince people to consider their own values ​​and what they found importance in as Americans and as people..