arrogance, greed, kindness

For a long time, whaling has been regarded as a recognition of selfishness and greed. But after watching this movie, I felt that my previous thinking was too one-sided. There were two kinds of whalers at that time. One was like the captain of the Essex, George Pollard, who came from a whaling family and had a certain identity and status. Going out to sea for whaling was just in the family's favor. Expectation, the other is like First Mate Owen, is the poor working people of the lower class of society, and whaling is the means of survival.
Owen could have been the captain of the Essex if it wasn't for George Pollard's involvement. , gave the captain's seat to George, who was supported by his family. This created a class-based, irreconcilable conflict between Owen and George from the start. As the aged Nickerson recalled, that voyage was a war between the two men. At first, Captain George looked down on First Officer Owen, provoked many times, and refused to accept Owen's opinions.
Then they sailed for nearly a year, but only one whale was caught, the warehouse was empty, everyone was impetuous, anxious, and more importantly, they were homesick, no wonder George and Owen heard that there was a dense group of whales near the equator, Completely ignoring the advice of those who came over about the giant beluga whale, and decided to go without hesitation. But in my opinion, behind such a decision, First Officer Owen is purely out of a desire to fill the warehouse and go home as soon as possible, while Captain George has a desire to prove his strength behind his love of home, which can be interpreted as Vanity can also be considered greed. But at this stage of the story, the conflict between the captain and the first officer has been gradually weakened.
After the fleet arrived in the South Pacific, it was eventually sunk by a giant whale. The crew drifted for months and finally returned to their hometown. During this period, they had to resort to various means in order to survive, which seems to be the focus of the film. But the emotional change between the captain and the first mate is also a clue that cannot be ignored in this movie. George Pollard embodies the responsibility of a captain in the drift, preventing his cousin from killing Owen, and even wanting to sacrifice himself to keep the crew alive, and the relationship with Owen gradually eases. Finally at the hearing, he took off his vanity disguise, told the truth, and sublimated into "goodness"
Although the whole movie is magnificent, I prefer to pay attention to the change process of one of them

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