The story of Moby Dick is truly an American literary classic. The word classic, itself, means belonging to a certain category of excellence, or having a lasting artistic worth which to most people fits the novel perfectly. Moby Dick was first published in 1851 and to this day is still being studied by many scholars. There is much to be learned from the theme of this novel, as in any book, there is a message or a "moral of the story" type lesson you can learn from Moby Dick that keeps not only the new age scholars interested, but the average reader as well. .
"Moby Dick is not a dream but a work of imaginative art, and this means that it is the product of a complex creative process- (Arvin; 278). "The intertangled themes of this novel express the artistic genus of a mind that, according to Hawthorne, "could neither believe nor be comfortable in unbelief" (Atchity; 1474). The themes and "richness of purpose" (Atchity; 1474), becomes enticing to read through the wonderfully written character/narrator, Ishmael. Through his character the reader establishes a bond with him, and together get to witness one of the best adventures ever written and of course a powerful lesson. .
Henry A. Murray-a critic of the novel- wrote an essay concluding that " there are meanings and lessons to be understood in Moby Dick," and that Melville along with his novel will be forever secure if modern critics can continue to discover the meanings of the book (Murray; 280). One of the main meanings or lessons that (as a generalization from critics) is not to become to focused and obsessed with one goal to the point that you exclude the more important things in life. .
This lesson is represented with Ahab's peculiar obsession with hunting and killing the white whale. By setting this as his most significant goal in life, he begins to ignore more important things such as the lives of his crewmen, and eventually his own life.
Herman Melville's classic American novel Moby Dick is no exception. In Moby Dick, Melville uses innumerable biblical allusions, but readers can observe this literary technique best in the naming of his characters. ... In Moby Dick Melville acts as both parent and inventor. ... Ishmael begins Moby Dick saying "Call me Ishmael." ... The use of Ahab in Moby Dick is very powerful. ...
American Renaissance Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," belongs to the period known as American romanticism, the period called, by F.O. Matthiessen, the American Renaissance. ... American romanticism shares a number of characteristics with British romanticism, but it has its own uniquely American characteristics as well, growing as it does from a particularly American brand of religious thought (particularly Puritanism), shaped as it is by the American landscape, and situated as it is in the wake of American Revolutionary thought. ... Herman Melville: an author of romantic fict...
The relationship with Hawthorne reawakened Melville's creative energies, and in 1851 Melville published his most renowned novel, "Moby-Dick." ... Melville's most significant works outside of "Moby-Dick" include the short stories that he wrote during this time period, including "Bartleby the Scrivener" (1853) and "Benito Cereno" (1855). ... Herman Melville, who died almost forgotten although he had once been a popular author and had left behind ten notable books of prose fiction and four of verse, has gathered increasing fame, especially for his metaphysical whaling novel, "Moby-Dic...
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex--an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history. ... Philbrick has taken a fascinating event in nautical history, the ramming of a whaling ship by an enraged sperm whale (the real life inspiration for Melville's Moby Dick), and written a gripping, informative book about whaling, Nantucket, prejudice, des...