It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom, ere running off into the soil, leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded. Melville's description of Ahab's scar in this excerpt best develops which theme in the novel?

Melville’s description of Ahab’s scar in this excerpt from ''Moby ick'' best develops the theme of: the ruling of man's present by his past wounds. This excerpt clearly shows that the scar that character attained in the past still has an influence on his life. The character feels the presence of the scar as if it was freshly got, and all this descriptive language stands as a metaphor of symbolic meaning of people's scars in their life and fate.