Analysis Of The Book ' Moby Dick '

In the passage Moby Dick by Herman Melville, uses multiple strategies to create an effect on the reader. Melville uses diction, imagery, details, language, sentence structure, and tone and to make his effect on the reader much more engaging and interesting.

    One might say we are presented with two fish stories in looking at Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, a marlin in the former and a whale in the latter.  However, both of these animals are symbolic of the struggle their hunters face to find dignity and meaning in the face of a nihilistic universe in Hemingway and a fatalistic one in Melville.  While both men will be unable to conquer the forces of the universe against them, neither will either man be conquered by them because of their refusal to yield to these insurmountable forces.  However, Santiago gains a measure of peace and understanding about existence from his struggles, while Ahab leaves the

Throughout his novel, Moby Dick, Herman Melville will often devote entire chapters to the thoughts and actions of specific characters. Two specific examples of this type of chapter are Chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, and Chapter 42, The Whiteness of the Whale. The first of these chapters depicts Ahab addressing his crew for the first time in order to convince them to hunt down Moby Dick. The second offers insight to the fear that is brought upon by the mere mention of Moby Dick The significance and effectiveness of each of these chapters are enhanced by Melville’s use of rhetoric and style respectively.

There is a more modern parallel from Captain Ahab to George W. Bush. Both were Commander in Chief, both had vengeance towards an unseen enemy, and both rallied the crew to fight against this enemy. Captain Ahab encouraged his crew to take down the white whale

In Herman Melville’s novel, Moby-Dick, Ishmael, the narrator, goes on a whaling voyage where he learns the values of life and makes amazing friends through the process. Although he also experiences dangerous expeditions on the ship, and first one that was introduced was in chapter 48, “The First Lowering”. In this chapter, the whole crew goes out on their first whaling expedition where they encountered a heavy storm which resulted in the readers finding out more about Stubb, Flask, and Starbuck’s personality and leadership skills. The chapter also brought some racist views where the crew gossiped about the shadow men that snuck on the ship and how they are above those men in rank and status. Overall, Ishmael reveals more information to the readers in this chapter than the others and has given them an introduction to the dangers of a whaling voyage. “The First Lowering” is one of the most important and dangerous chapters in the book because Ishmael enhances the reader’s knowledge about the lives of the sailors and gives them a glimpse of his racial views as well.

As the story of Moby Dick starts, Ishmael our narrator immediately establishes a direct relationship with the reader through the famous line, “call me Ishmael.” And as the story begins to unfold, the opening chapters paint us an image of who Ishmael is: a stoic young man, full of sadness, and consumed by wanderlust. Yet this information only scratches the surface of who our character truly is and the question can still be asked, “Who really is this character that is asking us to refer to him by his first name?” By doing a close reading of chapter 68 The Blanket, we are given examples of how Ishmael thinks about and views his surroundings, which help give us insight to who he really is. Ishmael is more than just a friendly narrator, but rather a very deep and perceptive character.

In Herman Melville's Moby Dick Captain Ahab, a tyrannical ruler, uses powerful rhetoric in order to convince his whole crew to assist him in the pursuit of Moby Dick; an unstoppable white sperm whale who has taken the lives of many sailors. Ahab’s crew and The Pequod, their ship, depart from Nantucket, Massachusetts on a 3 year quest to find and kill the mighty Moby Dick. Ahab uses his skill with language, rhetoric, tone, and imagery to convince his crew to embark on his treacherous pursuit for vengeance.

Ishmael, as the narrator, compares Ahab to a bear who is “burying himself in the hollow of a tree” (146). Bears are known to be vicious, yet Melville chooses to compare Ahab to the calmer side of a hibernating bear, despite Ahab also being described as “moody” and “savage” (83). In “The Quarter-Deck,” Melville compares something shouted by Ahab to an “animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose” (156). Although it is not vicious like a bear, a moose, like Ahab, has powerful qualities. Yet Melville uses “heart-stricken” to portray Ahab displaying a sign of overwhelming sadness and dismay. When Melville, through Ishmael’s narration, compares Ahab to animals, it employs that Ahab has a weaker side as well as a strong and powerful side. However, the contrast in the way Melville portrays Ahab through his descriptions of the captain is not the only form on contradiction Melville

Intratextually, Melville portrays the Pequod shipmates as swept away by Ahab’s romantic, neo-Shakespearean language: “to chase that White Whale… over all sides of the earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out… wilt thou not chase the white whale? Art not game for Moby-Dick?” thus creating a “deputation from all isles of the sea, and all ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod”, embarking on a shared experience and process of discovery. Metatextually, this same romantic, neo-Shakespearean language, as well as the sheer weight and volume of the novel awes audiences. As a marketable product itself, the novel allows for uniform creative discovery, as well as intellectual discovery (given the scientific chapters of the novel), for audiences across contexts. Thus, we can see that the emotional appeal of discoveries allows for its commodification and mass consumption creating unvaried rediscoveries by individuals across

Also, throughout the book, Melville goes into lengthy digressions on the anatomy and nature of the whale, only then to say that all those descriptions didn’t do justice to the true whale, proving that he was indescribable. Although many of these things are true, some are not, and they are all presented in a sardonic manner. This is an evil, condescending view of God, and is clearly criticizing

This was the darker type of the era. “Not all American romantics were optimistic or had faith in the innate goodness of humankind, however.” (“American Gothic: The “Brooding” Romantics” 304). This and Moby Dick have the same elements in common, which is why Melville and this era relate to each other. As a young age Melville’s name was added an “e” after his fathers death. Shortly after that Marville got ill, and became permanently impaired due to the illness. He lived a whalers life out on the seas. Melville’s darkening and sorrow life pushed him to his publication of the novel Moby Dick. Overall, the life that Melville lived and based on the time period, this influenced this interesting novel to be published. During this time period, Melville's character was identical during the Nineteenth century.Moby Dick, has a creative and interesting point of view. Ishmael, the narrator, says, “But 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. For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught- nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!" (Chapter 32, page, 120 Moby-Dick; or The Whale). This quote is a

(Melville 622) Ahab’s soliloquy reveals the internal conflict of his soul. Like the force behind the facade of the whale, the catalyst behind Ahab's unexplainable impulse is a dark, inscrutable, overlord. In his madness, he believes he is fighting the force of evil, however, in reality, he battles only his inner

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is one of the most esteemed pieces of American literature. Highly saturated with symbols, philosophical cogitations, and seemingly verbose digressions from plot, Moby Dick takes an unconventional approach in presenting the story surrounding a monomaniacal captain and his doomed pursuit of a whale. Melville crafts his novel mainly around how the bystander figure of Ishmael experienced it, and by doing so unfolds the story, and the raw emotions captured throughout, into a more comprehensive experience. As an outsider, slowly working his ways into the mysteries of whaling and the Pequod, Ishmael seeks meaning and a physical grasp on the world, but as the story unfolds the reader sees from glimpses of his

In the fictional story of Moby Dick, the author takes us through his many moods and incessant obsessions. Having read the story of the author, before reading Moby Dick, I can see the correlating facets of his mental state, throughout his life. It would seem he has integrated these into his fictional characterizations. The author seems to be portraying himself as Captain Ahab, and the Great White Whale, Moby Dick is characterizing the parts in his life where he lost everything in his childhood and his feelings of failure with his family. The author went to work on whaling ships in his teens. Working on the whaling ships unleashed his many feelings of life. The feelings and actions captured and portrayed in the story are from the author's reflections of suffering obssesive thoughts, melancholy, hatred, vengeance, and selfishness and later acceptance to his place in the world at large.

Herman Melville, in his renowned novel Moby-Dick, presents the tale of the determined and insanely stubborn Captain Ahab as he leads his crew, the men of the Pequod, in revenge against the white whale. A crew mixed in age and origin, and a young, logical narrator named Ishmael sail with Ahab. Cut off from the rest of society, Ahab attempts to make justice for his personal loss of a leg to Moby Dick on a previous voyage, and fights against the injustice he perceived in the overwhelming forces that surround him. Melville uses a series of gams, social interactions or simple exchanges of information between whaling ships at sea, in order to more clearly present man’s situation as he faces an existence whose meaning he cannot fully grasp.