American literature
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
American novelist, poet
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Works
Redburn
1849
Typee
1846
Omoo
1874
Moby Dick
1851
Mardi
1849
White Jacket
1850
Pierre
1852
Billy Budd (posthumously)
The Confidence Man
Battle Pieces
1866
Major ideas of New England Transcendentalism
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Placing emphasis on spirit or Over-soul, as the most
important thing in the universe.
--- a new way of looking at the world
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Stressing the importance of individual (self-reliance)
--- a new way of looking at man
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Offering a fresh perception of the nature as symbolic
of the Spirit or God.
(“The Universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.”
“Spirit is present everywhere.” The individual soul
communed with the Over-soul and was therefore divine.).
Moby Dick
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Major Characters
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Ishmael - The narrator, and a member of the crew of the Pequod,
not playing a major role in the events of the novel, but much of the
narrative is taken up by his eloquent, verbose, and extravagant
discourse on whales and whaling. l
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Ahab - The egomaniacal captain of the Pequod. Ahab lost his leg to
Moby Dick. He is single-minded in his pursuit of the whale, using a
mixture of charisma and terror to persuade his crew to join him. As a
captain, he is dictatorial but not unfair. At moments he shows a
compassionate side, caring for the insane Pip and musing on his
wife and child back in Nantucket.
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Moby Dick - The great white sperm whale. Moby Dick, also referred
to as the White Whale, is an infamous and dangerous threat to
seamen, considered by Ahab the incarnation of evil and a fated
nemesis.
Evaluation
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Moby Dick is, critics have agreed, one of the world’s
greatest masterpieces. To get to know the 19th
century American mind and America itself, one has to
read this book.
 It is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy,
religion, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the
operations of the whaling industry.
 “To scale great heights, we must come out of the
lowest depths. The way to heaven is through hell. We
need fiery baptism in the fierce flames of our bosoms.”
欲攀登高峰，必先脱离深渊；欲登天堂，必先途经地狱。
我们需要经受发生在内心的熊熊烈火的洗礼。
Symbols in Moby Dick
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or
colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
The Pequod: a symbol of doom. It is painted
a gloomy black and covered in whale teeth
and bones, literally bristling with the
mementos of violent death. It is, in fact,
marked for death.
Symbol of Moby Dick
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It has various symbolic meanings for various individuals.
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To the Pequod’s crew, it is a concept onto which they can displace
their anxieties about their dangerous and often very frightening
jobs.
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Ahab, on the other hand, believes that Moby Dick is a
manifestation of all that is wrong with the world, and he feels that
it is his destiny to eradicate this symbolic evil.
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In its inscrutable silence and mysterious habits, for example, the
White Whale can be read as an allegorical representation of an
unknowable God.
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As a profitable commodity, it fits into the scheme of white
economic expansion and exploitation in the nineteenth century.
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As a part of the natural world, it represents the destruction of the
environment by such hubristic expansion.
Queequeg’s Coffin
 Queequeg’s coffin alternately symbolizes life and death.
 Queequeg has it built when he is seriously ill, but when
he recovers, it becomes a chest to hold his belongings
and an emblem of his will to live.
 The coffin further comes to symbolize life, in a morbid
way, when it replaces the Pequod’s life buoy.
 When the Pequod sinks, the coffin becomes Ishmael’s
buoy, saving not only his life but the life of the narrative
that he will pass on.