"It's the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him."
Moby D**k The key to understanding The Whale is understanding the metaphor it borrows from Moby D**k, which in turn borrows from the Bible. Brendan Fraser's Charlie has a through-line to Ishmael that connects to Jonah. In Moby D**k, Ishmael goes to a chapel and hears Father Mapple describes Jonah's futile attempts to flee God. He says the harder Jonah tries to escape, the greater his punishment will be. Once Jonah is swallowed by the whale, he does not pray to be saved, he instead accepts his state of being. He has given credence to his punishment in which God relents and only then saves him. Once he is saved, Jonah goes on "[t]o preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood".
In Charlie's words,...