Answer:
despair influence the writing of this passage
To expand about yourself more than just what your resume says
This detail exemplifies the larger theme of the futility of human efforts to dominate nature.
The entire novel revolves around that theme - whether Ahab as a human is capable of dominating Moby Dic, which is a whale and thus a representative of nature. Nature seems to be winning constantly and humans are ultimately unable to conquer it because nature is unconquerable. <span />