...American Literature Book Report Moby-Dick Herman Melville Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is about a boy named Ishmael and a Captain named Ahab, as they set off on a journey to catch a white whale. “There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.” This is one of the quotes in the book that really stick out. It can be applicable to a lot of people throughout the ages. Moby-Dick is very much a classic as it was written awhile back. Herman Melville set the time around the same time he published Moby-Dick in Pittsfield, Massachusetts around 1850. Ishmael, the narrator, does have experience as a sailor but this is the first time he goes whaling. While staying at a whaler's inn he meets Queequeg, a harpooner from the south and also a cannibal. After a while the two men become friends and begin looking for work on a whaling vessel together. In Nantucket, they end up getting a job on a boat called the Pequod. The captain of the Pequod is Ahab, who has recently lost a leg in a fight against Moby Dick. The Pequod sets out and as the ship reaches warmer and calmer waters, Ahab makes his entrance to the rest of the crew. He tells them his intention to kill Moby Dick, the great white whale that took his leg. Ahab sees Moby Dick as a main symbol of evil. As motivation...
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...The Painting at "The Spouter Inn" “Moby Dick” is a novel which is full of symbolic meanings and ideas depicting human courage and dignity, the role of fate and destiny in life of common people. This novel depicts life experience of a common sailor Ishmael through the lens of fate and destiny. The journey around the world serves as a symbol that represents dilemma and the knowledge retrieval, the desire to find old truth, and the symbol of maternity. Thesis Using the painting at “The Spouter Inn” Melville gives some hints to readers symbolically portraying hardship and tragedy, a struggle between life and death awaiting the main character of the novel. From the very beginning, Ishmael cannot understand the meaning of the picture. He tries to find different interpretations of the image described as “there was a sort of indefinite, half-attained, unimaginable sublimity about it that fairly froze you to it, till you involuntarily took an oath with yourself to find out what that marvelous painting meant” (Melville, Chapter 3). In a moment, the image “bears a faint resemblance to a gigantic fish” or “even the great leviathan himself” (Melville, Chapter 3). It is possible to assume that the picture represents eternal existence, so it is difficult find the right meaning of the painting. Nature and the sea theme in particular are used as a symbol to describe deep personal feelings and life experience of a human being. This symbol gives only some hints to the reader to comprehend...
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...In the novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, a microcosm lives in the Pequod. Throughout the story, the microcosm is apparent in the control and superiority of Captain Ahab, friendship, religion, and the struggles of good and evil. The Pequod symbolizes the views, actions, thoughts, and the various types of people in the world. Ahab’s power and authority show that he is the leader in this small world. He conjures allegiance and fear out of the crew. Dagoo, Tashtego, and Queequeg are the minorities on the ship(for obvious reasons) and represent the minorities of the world. They band together when one is in danger. Starbuck is very religious and portrays the devout of the world. His faith and reverence keep him sane during the long journey. The rest of the crew depicts the average people of the world. They show how gullible and vulnerable we can be sometimes. To win over the crew, Ahab uses his knowledge of human nature to coax them into helping him with his vengeance. The first thing he does is nails the gold doubloon to the mast and promises it to the first man to see Moby Dick. By doing so, he makes them remember what their reward will be when they see the whale. Next he gives them rum to reach the gluttonous side of man. This shows that we are weak and give in to pleasure. After that he cuts his palm, squeezes the blood out, drips it in the rum and tells them to drink it. This shows Ahab trying to get to the religious aspect of man by having them drink his blood...
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...Ahab’s Leg and Moby Dick Melville uses symbolism in his novel Moby Dick to express his theme. Anti-Transcendentalism plays a large role in his writing as well. Captain Ahab’s leg is a symbol used to express natures mark on man along with anti-transcendentalist ideas. Melville also uses Moby Dick to represent man vs nature. Captain Ahab’s leg and Moby Dick represent anti-transcendentalist ideas and are symbols throughout the story. Captain Ahab is the captain of the Pequod whaling ship in the story. The singular purpose of the Captain’s whaling mission is to hunt down and kill a whale name Moby Dick. In his previous encounter with Moby Dick the Captain lost his leg to the whale. In place of his real leg the Captain has a prosthetic leg made of out whale bone. The Captain’s bone leg has quite a few meanings. It represents struggle to readjust to life, the want for vengeance, and anger. The Captain wants to invoke vengeance on Moby Dick because of his unrightful taking of his leg. This strong anger towards Moby Dick makes him obsessed on getting revenge. He offers a reward to all of the crew members aboard the boat for whoever kills Moby Dick; “Whosoever of ye raises me a while headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke - look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys” (Melville 4). This reward offering shows that the Captain will go to the ends of the sea and back in order to have Moby Dick killed. This...
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...Religion is one of the earliest themes that emerged in Moby Dick. There are a numerous amount of religions that are each shown with equal respect towards in the novel. It is unusual for a novel to do something like putting Christians and pagans on the same level. As it is a contrast to what America was like during the time the book was written. In addition, the novel also uses a great deal of biblical symbolism in the names and allegorical roles of the characters. Moby Dick can be interpreted as a reflection of Melville’s religious philosophy. Using his characters as symbolism and allegories allows him to show his opinion on religion. One of the clearest symbols being the whale, Moby Dick. The whale is "not only ubiquitous, but immortal,"(Melville, 179) and it can be interpreted as a symbol of God or a servant of God. Ahab chases the whale in an attempt to defy God. This can suggest that Melville believes that things will not end well for those who attempt to defy God, hence why in the book Ahab and the crew die. In chapter 9, the only “clergy man”, Father Maple tells us “The story of Jonah”. It tells that God makes us do things we do know want to do for our own good. "The things God wants us to do are hard for us to do--remember that--and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists."(Melville, 40). This can be interpreted that throughout...
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...On October 18, 1851, Herman Melville published one of America's most well renown and analyzed classics, Moby Dick. Throughout this novel, Melville alludes to various themes and personal beliefs through the literary devices he incorporates and embeds in his characters trials and tribulations. Melville's encapsulation of an adventurous tone and the biblical allusion of King Ahab, leads one to believe he wrote Moby Dick to depict that a man's desire for inner peace will cause him to chose life-threatening ways actions. From page one, Melville embodies and utilizes tone to help foster the characterization of Ishmael, the main character. This is immediately witnessed in the first line of the novel, "Call me Ishmael." While this line is brief, it is extremely significant to the story and serves as the foundation to the tone. Melville uses this time period, in which whaling was illustrated as a heroic craft, to provide a feeling of angst and excitement to the diction of Ishmael's first three words, thus...
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...Moby-Dick is one of the most controversial and entertaining books known. Along with the book the themes are also extremely entertaining. Herman Melville is the outstanding mind behind this masterpiece. Herman Melville included the powerful theme of defiance, the worshipping theme of duty, and sorrowful theme of death. This book showed both respect for nature along with respect-less people. Throughout Mr. Melville showed his great mind along with his writing skills. Defiance is one of the numerous major themes of this book. One of the most defiant of all of the characters is Ahab. Ahab want to be so much more of a person than what he really and truly is (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This fact that he can not be drives him crazy throughout the...
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...Moby Dick: A Judgment of Ahab’s Character Everyone is responsible for their own actions; moreover, fate is just a scapegoat if something goes wrong. Captain Ahab, a character in the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville, is a victim of his own negligent actions. As a result, he faces an unfortunate death from the fury of the white whale. Ahab places all of his hate on the whale, whom is later referred to as Moby Dick, because he lost a leg to him. In his eyes, Moby Dick represents all of the hatred and evil in the world, and that he must go and destroy it. Yet, he is fully responsible for his own death due to the fact that he overlooked the warning signs that Nature and God provided for him, lacked communication between him and his shipmates, and preferred to be isolated from the crew in order to fuel his monomaniac conscience to put Moby Dick to his death. Because Ahab is the captain of the ship, he assumed that he ultimately had higher authority than God. God, in his mind, was in the wrong, by letting Moby Dick “dismember” (Melville 161) him; leading into Captain Ahab’s growing fixation with the beast. While being infatuated with Moby Dick, he is forced to ignore the obvious signs from Nature that were telling him to change his plans if he desired to live. However, Ahab chose to ignore the warning signs that were thrown at him throughout the novel. One omen that Ahab chose to pay no heed to was when the Pequod “was left to fight a Typhoon which had struck it directly ahead”...
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...Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Limits of Knowledge As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the frequent references to the limits of observation (men cannot see the depths of the ocean, for example), suggest that human knowledge is always limited and insufficient. When it comes to Moby Dick himself, this limitation takes on allegorical significance. The ways of Moby Dick, like those of the Christian God, are unknowable to man, and thus trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, is inevitably futile and often fatal. The Deceptiveness of Fate In addition to highlighting many portentous or foreshadowing events, Ishmael’s narrative contains many references to fate, creating the impression that the Pequod’s doom is inevitable. Many of the sailors believe in prophecies, and some even claim the ability to foretell the...
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...and he had potent figures in his ancestry. When Herman was eleven years old, his father became mentally deranged and soon died because of it. (Herbert 244-245) After the death of his father, Herman made many attempts to sustain himself and his family. He worked in a bank, briefly studied engineering, and even became a teacher for a short while. Afterwards, he went on a trip to Liverpool, on board the St. Lawrence (Hillway 31-37). Then, he became a sailor aboard the whaling ship, the Acushnet, in 1841 (Herbert 245). Melville’s adventures at sea truly inspired him to write Moby Dick. On August 4, 1847, Herman Melville married Elizabeth Shaw. They had four children: Malcolm, Stanwix, Elizabeth, and Frances. The family moved to Arrowhead, a farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Here he met and befriended Nathaniel Hawthorne, another famous author of the time. Moby-Dick was dedicated to him. (Merriman)After Moby-Dick, or...
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...I believe Frederick Douglass would find Melville’s chapter 42 of Moby Dick, titled “The Whiteness of the Whale,” most compelling. Moby Dick’s whiteness may symbolize nobility, virtue, fear, and racial superiority. We learn that most men fear Moby Dick, and Ishmael focuses on the fear his color creates amongst them. This all correlates with the fear of the unknown and fear of the white man. I say this because of Ahab’s relationship with the whale. Moby Dick took away his leg, which is a representation of his inability to fully assimilate into society, just as slaves had a hard time becoming equal citizens. Ahab’s missing leg can parallel to the missing rights of slaves that white man has taken away. Also I found the way Melville speaks about...
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...the others had taken out oaths of violence and revenge" (194). "Moby-Dick was ubiquitous; that he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instance of time" (197). "Moby-Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal" (198). “Every dismembering or death that he caused, was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an unintelligent agent” (199). “All evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick” (200). Most sailors view Moby-Dick as a deity. Many rumors support this belief including, "Moby-Dick was ubiquitous; that he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instance of time" (197), and, "Moby-Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal" (198). They believe that he was so powerful he can be everywhere at once. He had control over his actions and he was intelligent and he knew he was killing men and did it on purpose, “Every dismembering or death that he caused, was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an unintelligent agent” (199). Sailors, especially Captain Ahab, believed that Moby-Dick was an evil monster, saying, "I learned the history of that murderous monster against who I and all the others had taken out oaths of violence and revenge" (194). Captain Ahab saw Moby-Dick as the ultimate evil, “All evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby-Dick”...
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...proved to be a genius of his own, with his many works such as Moby Dick, Billy Bud, and Bartleby. Three distinct themes could be seen throughout most of his literature; whales and the whaling industry, commentary on the universe and human destiny, and ideas about God and nature. Moby Dick is an incredible work by Melville most often referred to as an epic, a tragedy, a novel, an exposition on the whaling, and a spiritual autobiography. It is often overlooked that a deeper, more symbolic, meaning may have been the driving force behind Moby Dick. Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819, to Allan and Maria Melville. He was the third of eight children in the Melville family. He was generally described as silent and slow; his mother thought him to be a very dull child. In 1832 Melville suffered tragedy when his father died. Finishing school when he was fifteen, Melville took service as cabin boy aboard the St. Lawrence. After returning to his home in New York for some time after serving as cabin boy, Melville took berth as an ordinary seaman aboard a whaling ship called the Acushnet. After approximately four and a half years as a seaman on various ships, he set down, again in New York, to write of his experiences. Within six years he had published five books. Shortly thereafter Melville was married and moved his family to a farm near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was at this location where Moby Dick was written. Moby Dick was first published in 1851. Melville continued to write...
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...Symbolism in Literature In literature, symbolism is used to provide meaning to the writing beyond what is actually being described. The plot and action that take place in a story can be thought of as one level, while the symbolism of certain things in the writing acts on another level to enhance the story. It is a product of the culture of the day and reveals the culture in return. Symbolism can take place by having the theme of a story represented on a physical level. A simple example might be the occurrence of a storm at a critical point, when there are conflicts or high emotions. The storm might symbolize these. Similarly a transition from day to night, or spring to winter, could symbolize a move from goodness to evil, or hope to despair. A river in a scene could represent the flow of life, from birth to death. Flowers can symbolize youth or beauty. Take The Loons as an example, it is just a typical novel with symbolism from beginning till the end, with “the loons” throughout as a symbol of Piquette. Through the parallel of loons and Piquette, it is easy to find their common inability to change themselves and their environment——loons are unable to adapt to modern human invasion; Piquette is unable to escape the cultural stereotypes imposed on her. The novel reflects the ecological and ethical crises between man and nature and among humans for conquest and criticizes the power ideology embodied in the crises. Vanessa casually describes Piquette’s tuberculosis...
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...The Whiteness of the Whale In Moby Dick, Herman Melville uses several examples of imagery to support the meaning of the color white. Because of this imagery, the formalist criticism can be used to further analyze the text. Formalism analyzes texts under the assumption that we will only understand a text within the writing’s own form. The imagery of the “whiteness of the whale†consumes the entire 42nd chapter of Moby Dick. Because white, in many cultures, is associated with beauty and goodness, Melville talks about the images of white marbles and pearls and how the whiteness these objects make them more desirable. Not only does white depict beauty but it is also a symbol of power and dominance. For example Melville refers to the color white as the “imperial colorâ€, mentioning white man’s dominance over “every dusky tribeâ€. To further illustrate the “goodness†of whiteness Melville relates the color to the “innocence of bridesâ€, and the divineness of the wild white horse. Another attribute Melville associates with whiteness is “holinessâ€, mentioning that all priests wear. The color white symbolizes many different positive characteristics throughout this chapter. Melville mentions the association between this color and traits like innocence, purity, and goodness. Immediately after discussing the goodness of whiteness, he identifies that the color can also have a negative connotation. The color white also serves as a serious contradiction in itself as...
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