answer:My guess? Because Moby Dick is a beast that acts only on instinct. Ahab treats it as if it were a man who had wronged him. Man was made in the image of God; Ahab’s acrimonious attitude is tantamount to saying that the whale, too, was made in the image of God. God did not make whales in His image, and saying that He did is insulting. I dunno, I never actually read Moby Dick.