In Melville's Moby Dick, nature is a great force that humans must reckon with. Ishmael understands the power of nature. Even when cataloguing the whale in the system of cetology, Ishmael understands the vastness of nature. He says in Chapter 32:
"I now leave my Cetological System standing thus unfinished, even as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower... God keep me from ever completing anything" (page numbers vary by edition).
In other words, nature is so vast that Ishmael can't even hope to complete his catalogue of the whale, just as the Cathedral of Cologne can't be finished. Only God can capture the vastness of nature, and control it. Ahab, on the other hand, does not understand the vast and unconquerable state of nature, and he attempts to control it, only to be destroyed by Moby Dick, the whale.
In Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, on the other hand, Huck and the runaway slave Jim feel far more at ease floating on the Mississippi on a raft than they do in the slave-holding towns on shore. Huck says in Chapter 18:
"I didn’t feel comfortable until we were two miles below there and out in the middle of the Mississippi...We said that there was no home as wonderful as a raft. Other places seem so tight and breathing is difficult. You feel very free and easy and comfortable on a raft" (page numbers vary by edition).
Nature provides peace and rest for Huck and Jim, as they defy society's laws regarding slaves. On shore, they feel ill at ease and constricted. Only on the raft, away from the shore, are they free to live as they like.
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