Actually, I might agree about Moby-Dick.
My copy of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has an introduction that basically compares the two books, and I think it makes a very powerful case for Ahab, crazy as he is, being The American (even though that author ends up with a different conclusion).
There’s something about his individualism, his driven-ness, and the almost blasphemous nature of his quest that strikes me (an Anglophile Canadian) as epitomizing your country’s spirit.