Symbolism and Americanism within Melville's Moby Dick Essay

Ahab is faced with many forewarnings about the dangers of pursuing the white whale, but his overconfidence causes him to overlook these warnings and continue on to what will be his unfortunate end. Incidentally, the Pequod is stuck in a fierce typhoon and the ship is faced with nearly disastrous conditions, even so, Ahab sees “Look up at it; mark it well, the white flame but lights the way to the White Whale!” (Melville 486). The typhoon itself is warning the ship to turn away from their course. Ahab ignores these warning and instead sees the phenomenon as a sign that they should continue ahead to reach the white whale. When faced with warnings and disaster, Ahab’s arrogance is what makes him oblivious to all the signs telling him to turn away from his path. Soon after, The Pequod encounters a melancholy ship, The Delight. Contrary to its name, The Delight is the most devastating ship The Pequod encounters, they are dumping corpses overboard and “the suddenly started Pequod was not quick enough to escape the sound of the splash that the corpse soon made as it struck the sea; not so quick, indeed, but that some of the flying bubbles might have sprinkled her hull with their ghostly baptism” (Melville 519). The erie display of The Delight foreshadows the demise of the crew, it is a warning to Ahab of what is ahead if he continues on his journey, yet, Ahab

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.

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.

Moby Dick is the most adapted and diversely depicted of American literature, and I attempt to work with the community to research the collective consciousness we all share that links itself to the various facet of the text. I will be continuing to create works that are related to Moby Dick during the Guttenberg residency, but mainly focusing on extending these imageries

Quote: In chapter 128, the Pequod is hailed by another whaling ship, the Rachel. This ship had met Moby Dick, and lost two of its crew from the ensuing attack. One of witch was the captain’s son, this captain was devastated and determined to find him. However when Ahab refuses to assist the captain, Melville describes how the Rachel sailed away; “But by her still halting course and winding, woeful way, you plainly saw that this ship that so wept with spray, still remained without comfort. She was Rachel, weeping for her children, because they were

Captain Ahab of the whaling ship, The Pequod, set out on a journey to conquer his foe that had removed his leg – the White Whale dubbed Moby Dick. Just recently, the ship was witnessed being destroyed firsthand by members of the whaling ship Rachel. It is reported that only one man from Nantucket survived the wreck and that the rest of the crew suffered a brutal death at the hands of the infamous white whale. The crew of the Rachel witnessed the entire conflict and is more than willing to share the details of this tragic event.

Contained in the text of Moby Dick, Herman Melville uses many widely cultural symbols, stories and actions to tell the tale of a whaling ship bent on the desires of its captains abhorrence for a real, and also symbolic, creature in the form of an albino sperm whale named Moby Dick. The time is 1851 and civil unrest is looming just over the horizon: slavery is the main point of interest in American politics, the last major novel released was The Scarlet Letter, Millard Fillmore becomes the 13th president following the untimely death of then president Zachary Taylor; the Fugitive Slave Act legally mandates all runaway slaves to be returned to their owners (regardless of what state in the union they were found); and religion is a driving

“If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.” (Melville 17) There is an overwhelming amount of evidence to support Ishmael’s love for the sea and is emphasized and returned to Ishmael in an ironic and humbling way from the “watery world”. In this adventurous journey, a young man named Ishmael sets out on a voyage to see the world and become a harpooner. He does not only discover a fierce whale representing his external influences but also his own internal self-revelation.

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.

His most famous book, Moby Dick, features the observant narrator, Ishmael, aboard the Pequot, a ship captained by the menacing one-legged Captain Ahab. Having lost his limb in a previous voyage to an enormous sperm whale named Moby Dick, Ahab scans the seven seas in manic search of revenge against the giant. Queequeg, Ishmael’s menacing best friend, and the rest of the crew are subjected to extreme jeopardy and later death due to Ahab’s monomaniacal disregard for bad omens and danger. The whale slices the boat clean in half and none survive to tells of its greatness except Ishmael.

    Among the numerous themes and ideas that author Herman Melville expresses in Moby Dick, one of the less examined is the superiority of the primitive man to the modern man. As an undertone running through the entire book, one can see in Moby Dick the same admiration of the "noble savage" that is so prevalent in Melville's earlier tales of the simple and idyllic life of the cannibals, even though the focus has been shifted to the dangers of seeing things from only one point of view and to the struggle between good and evil.

Herman Millive’s classic novel Moby Dick tells the “swashbuckling” tale of the voyage of the whaling ship the Pequad and its captain, Ahab, who relentlessly pursue’s Moby Dick, the great Sperm whale, on a journey around the world. Within the text there are a great number of images, motifs and themes that reoccur throughout the novel and influence every element of the narrative. In the critical essay, “Loomings” : Yarns and Figures in the Fabric, Harrison Hayford examines how these literary devices mentioned above occur in the opening chapter of Moby Dick and directly relate to the element of character. Particularly Hayford forms his argument around the character of Ismael and how the elements being analyzed depict the similarities and differences between Ahab and himself.

The sailors want to fight Moby Dick, despite the fact that Melville suggests this fight against an “immortal” whale is “not for mortal man” (177, 198, 197). The crew even volunteered to give up their individuality, and independence, to assert some control over nature (606). Melville makes it clear that

with a sense of freedom. To be free, was Ishmael's goal from the beginning, he wanted to explore the ocean and go on an adventure away from the everyday world. "I freely assert, that the cosmopolite philosopher cannot, for his life, point out one single peaceful influence, which within the last sixty years has operated more potentially upon the whole broad world, taking in one aggregate, than the high and mighty business of whaling" (Melville 107 ). Ishmael has found his true love in whaling. Ishmael shows his new found love and respect for the business and has also found where peace lies. Ishmael gives this statement about

Moby-Dick captures the wild and reckless abandon with which men often pursue the American Dream. Longing for the classic liberty and luxury of their nation, many Dream-chasers leave their senses of reason in atrophy. As a result, the very paradise for which Americans hunger becomes a fountain of anguish and dissatisfaction--the very ironic opposite of a fulfilled American Dream. This cruel cycle manifests in Ahab’s character: “a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates” (Melville 246). Like a buzzard, Ahab’s relentless quest to smite Moby Dick eats away at his mental integrity, leaving him in tatters and horror-stricken. To be sure, though, Melville does jab directly at the woebegotten nature of the