Moby Dick Essay -- Human Spirituality Society Papers

Moby Dick Moby-Dick is the one American story which every individual seems to recognize. Because of its pervasiveness into our country’s collective psyche, the tale has been reproduced in film and cartoon, and references to the characters and the whale can be found in commercials, sitcoms, and music, proving the novel to still be relevant today. It is the epitome of American Romanticism because it delves into the human spirit, the force of imagination, and power of the emotions and the intellect. The novel praises and critiques the American society in sharp and unequivocal terms, while, at the same time, mirroring this mixed society through the â€Å"multinational crew of...the Pequod† (Shaw 61). Melville, through his elaborate construction of the novel, â€Å"makes the American landscape a place for epic conquest† (Lyons 462). The primary draw of this novel is the story itself: a whaling ship, headed by a monomaniac, and the pursuit of a whale, or the American dr eam and its attainment, making a clear â€Å"connection between Romanticism and nationalism† (Evans 9). The novel calls upon the reader’s imagination, emotions, and intellect to fully understand the journey of the story, the journey which takes the reader on a most unusual trip into the soul of mankind. The two primary characters, Ishmael and Ahab, are two parts of one whole. Ishmael is an Everyman; and as such, he is the ideal model of the emotions, the imagination, and the appreciation of the beauty and power of Nature, God, and man, coupled with timely infusions from his intellect and reasoning capabilities. He is clearly an articulate narrator who blends intellect and emotion, though at times he stays wholly within the reign of the emotions. Conversely, Ahab ... ... Paul. â€Å"Melville and His Precursors: Styles as Metastyle and Allusion.† American Literature 62 (1990): 445-63. Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or The White Whale. ed. Harrison Hayford and Hershel Parker. New York: Norton, 1967. Poe, Edgar Allan. Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe. ed. G. R. Thompson. New York: Harper & Roe, 1970/ Post-Lauria, Sheila. â€Å"’Philosophy in Whales...Poetry in Blubber’: Mixed Form in Moby-Dick.† Nineteenth Century Literature 45 (1990): 300-16. Putz, Manfred. â€Å"The Narrator as Audience: Ishmael as Reader and Critic in Moby-Dick.† Studies in the Novel 19.2 (1987): 160-75. Shaw, Peter. â€Å"Cutting a Classic Down To Size.† The Virginia Quarterly 69.1 (1993): 60-84. Thoreau, Henry D. Walden and Resistance to Civil Government. ed. William Rossi. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1992.