Moby Dick And Slavery As Its Parallel

In the beginning of the novel, the whale has the reputation for being the “Largest sea monster”. Moby Dick looks at whales culturally, scientifically and traditionally. The author particularly wants this tale to have a sense of mystery. The whale is large, white, kills or injures men and cannot be seized or killed. Ahab identifies with the whale spiritually and intellectually. “The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them” (41. 180). For more everyday men, the whale is a sign of sustenance. The whale itself means nothing. The natives worship it as a god; for others it means income, and in a spiritual moment, Ishmael even sees the whale as a symbol of his serenity. Melville makes it distinctive that it is ourselves who create our symbols. Moby Dick is the root of Ahab’s obsession and a key

In the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville, there is an untold truth about racism. The “whiteness of the whale” and Ishmael’s relationship with Queequeg suggest more than what meets the eye. Moby Dick was written approximately 10 years before the Civil War in America, a time when the fight over race was more relevant than ever. Although some may argue that race cannot be argued in Moby Dick, an article from The Massachusetts Review says, “the novel is a a floating Babel of racial types” (Bernard). The order of the Pequod demonstrates the hierarchy of race in the world at this time. Due to the focus on the “whiteness of the whale”, the broad-mindedness of the characters, and the secondary position of the colored characters.

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.

The first passage is the opening paragraph to Herman Melville Moby Dick. The novel opens the narrator speaking, “Call me Ishmael” (Melville 3). This line is significant for many reasons. One is that the narrator does not state that is his name, but just what he prefers to go by. Another reason is that Ishmael is a biblical name, it comes from the son of Abraham. However, Ishmael is overlooked in the bible and Abraham’s son Isaac becomes this heir of his family. Thus, making Ishmael an outcast and a loner. This directly reflects what Ishmael is like in Moby Dick. Ishmael begins to tell his tale, a few years ago he decided to go out and explore the ocean. Ishmael talks about how he was depressed living on land. He says, “…I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul” (Melville 3). November is often symbolic of death because it is a time between fall and winter when everything is dying. Ishmael explained how he was feeling morose and gloomy all the time. He even states, “especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street” (Melville 3). This implies that Ishmael is suicidal and often thinks about giving up. During this time, in the 1850s, traveling out to sea was a dangerous task. Lots of men who traveled out to sea never return. It is considered suicidal to go out and hunt whales. This is exactly why Ishmael

Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is believed by some to be the greatest literary works of all time. The book takes place in the 1840s and seems greatly advanced for its time. Herman Melville uses many literary techniques that bring about severe imagery as well as insight and education to the readers. One concept that is conveyed in Moby Dick is the journey itself. This is broken into the physical journey, the spiritual journey, and life’s journey.

A vengeful man, a native, and a man seeking enlightenment board a whaling vessel; this isn’t a joke, this is the United States of America throughout history and the members of the Pequod. Moby Dick is not just a tale about a whaling venture gone awry, it is a metaphor for what America was and is. The Pequod represents the country and government, while the 30 crew members (Melville 430; ch. 126) represents the United State citizens. This would have not been possible to consider in Melville’s time, but it is a true testament to literature being a living text. Melville wasn’t only writing about America in the 1800’s, he was writing about the natures of humanity, and the future of our society.

In 1819, The whale ship, Essex, set its sails and departed from Nantucket, Massachusetts on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean to hunt and kill sperm whales and retrieve the abundance of oil the whales possess, which became a crucial component in 19th century industry [2]. The island of Nantucket had been one of the most important oil businesses for quite some time. For the crew of the whale ships, harvesting whales was a tough assignment; when a whale was spotted, the crew would approach it, harpoon it, and then try to kill it. Once a whale was killed, its blubber was peeled from the corpse and then boiled for the high quality oil. On this particular journey the crew faced even more difficulties than just the killing

During this time there were divisions in the united states with talks of emancipation and the uphold of slavery. Because of the southern states wanting to uphold slavery, the depletion of the natural and fertile soil began, forcing slave owners to seek slave trade west where they are originally barred. This led to the United states need for expansion and led to more wars and the seizure of western land from Mexico. The constitutional crisis of the south wanting to succeed from the union because they wanted tighter regulations of slavery, as it related to the north led to the compromise of 1850(sattelmayer 748). Also during this time Melville’s father in law was one of the first northern judge to actually implement the law, sending fugitive slaves back to their masters. This went along with all the domestic issues America was having and the rising of the civil war. Melville comments on both of these events through Moby Dick, “Moby Dick comments on these events both directly and obliquely...The entire plot resounds with echoes of contemporary political rhetoric, in which biblical analogies and metaphors such as the ship of state, the leviathan, and storms at sea figured prominently”(Sattelmayer 748). He also makes many comparisons of political leaders of the time to characters in the novel, including Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster and Judge Shaw, who were both responsible for carrying out the compromise of 1850. Melville compared both of them to captain Ahab.

In his novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville seeks to explore the ambiguities of good versus evil, as well as the ambiguities within man himself. Melville treats the open ocean and the Pequod, a whaling vessel, as a microcosm of society in order to explore the true nature of humanity. During this journey the reader is introduced to two integral characters: Ishmael and Ahab. While the two may seem polar opposites in terms of personality and aspirations, it is with Ishmael and Ahab the Melville illuminates attributes intrinsic to humanity as a whole.

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville is a book about the hunt for the legendary white whale, Moby Dick. At first glance, many people believe that this book was written as a Christian allegory, although there are differing opinions on its exact meaning. Having said that, I believe that Moby Dick was written as a cruel mockery of Christianity. Melville uses many Biblical references in his book, and even has a character representing God, but it is satirical and was only written to express Melville’s anti-God worldview. However, because of the many references to Christianity in the book, many people read it the same way that they would read books such as Pilgrim’s Progress, and exalt Moby Dick along with other classic allegories.

Throughout reading Herman Melville’s convoluted novel “Moby Dick”, you learn that there is and will always be a limit to the amount of knowledge someone can accumulate. This becomes more apparent when the narrator of the story, Ishmael, constantly attempts to understand the whale Moby Dick, but does so inadequately, even after making use of various systems of knowledge. Moby Dick is painted as a God in this epic novel, and much like the belief that the deity’s in today’s religions are incomprehensible and the ways of them are unknowable to man, Moby Dick is likewise. Despite this fact, Ahab, the central character in the story, tries to interpret the ways of Moby Dick, and in his fruitless efforts, destroys his ship and kills all but one member of his crew. Melville argues that no matter our knowledge, the attempt to understand and interpret unfathomable ideas and beings is futile, and by doing so, may even be fatal.

More than 4,000 years ago, Japan was one of the first countries to start whaling, Norway was another. When whaling first began, every part of the whales were then use: the meat, skin, bones, blubber, and organs. During the Middle Ages, whaling grew in Northern Europe because of whale oil and baleen (also known as whalebone). The oils were used for oil lamps and the baleen was used for corsets and hoop skirts (NG). Japanese culture was founded on the idea of whaling. Eating whale meat is a sacred Japanese tradition that they as a country feel shouldn’t be broken. Today Japan says that their whaling research over past years has led the way to sustain this “renewable marine food resource” (NG).

HOOK. In Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Ishmael blindly signs up for a whaling expedition with the monomaniacal Captain Ahab. The reader is able to experience Ahab’s farcical obsession through Ishmael’s stable point of view from the beginning of the journey to the tragic fate of the Pequod. Melville writes Moby Dick in manner where Ishmael and Ahab’s personalities differ, yet compliment one another. Ishmael’s reflective, equanimous, and detached perspective heavily contrasts with Ahab’s reactive, erratic, and obsessive personality, making them complementary characters. While Ishmael provides a stable lens into the life aboard the ship, Ahab’s fiery temperament is what progresses the narrative.

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.

Like Ahab, Ishmael is a white man; however, he is different because he is not a white supremacist. Ishmael’s narration cuts down the “myth of white supremacy” (Andriano 141). Ishmael’s view of life can be contrasted with Ahab’s worldview; Ishmael progresses to see and accept diversity, while Ahab can only see whiteness. Melville uses the book’s narrator to convey the white man's true status in the world; Melville's white man is an equal to all other races. Ishmael is written to resemble Moby-Dick’s author by sharing Melville's opinions on whaling, spirituality, and philosophy. Ishmael is the only sailor to survive the sinking of the Pequod, which suggests that Melville pities these kind of white men, the men who are able to look beyond the whiteness (Berthod 139). Ishmael is able to accomplish what other white men in the novel cannot, which is a view of equality rather than racism. Ishmael is initially suspicious about Queequeg. He admits, “I could not help it, but I began to feel suspicious of this ‘dark complexioned’ harpooner” (13). Ishmael’s doubts about the savage are quickly proven wrong after he and the cannibal bond from sharing a bed with one another. By Chapter 10, he and Queequeg become bosom friends, and the novel’s protagonist time and time again defends his savage friend. Melville uses Ishmael to place the white man lower than an animal, emphasizing the American white man’s imminent doom (Andriano 143). In Chapter 13, Ishmael calls himself a barnacle to