10.G.Melvill and the symbolism of his “Moby Dick”

The novel Moby Dick was the sixth novel published by Herman Melville, a landmark of American literature that mixed a number of literary styles including a fictional adventure story, historical detail and even scientific discussion. MobyDick  is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The story tellsthe adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage onthe whaleship Pequod,  commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmaelsoon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby-Dick, awhite whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Comparatively fewwhaleships know of Moby-Dick, and fewer yet have encounteredhim. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boatand bit off his leg. Ahab intends to exact revenge.

Symbolism

Moby Dick

The white whale is one of the main focuses of the story. He symbolizes chaos and uncontrollability. Moby Dick is also a symbol of evil. Yet, being of the color white he take on a Godly-like role representing the power of nature. (To Ahab, obviously he is evil, but metephorically he represents his satisfing revenge.)Moby Dick possesses various symbolic meanings for various individuals. To the Pequod's crew, the legendary White Whale is a concept onto which they can displace their anxieties about their dangerous and often very frightening jobs. Because they have no delusions about Moby Dick acting malevolently toward men or literally embodying evil, tales about the whale allow them to confront their fear, manage it, and continue to function. 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. Moby Dick also bears out interpretations not tied down to specific characters. In its inscrutable silence and mysterious habits, for example, the White Whale can be read as an allegorical representation of an unknowable God. As a profitable commodity, it fits into the scheme of white economic expansion and exploitation in the nineteenth century. As a part of the natural world, it represents the destruction of the environment by such hubristic expansion.Since Captain Ahab's main goal is to find the whale and kill it, Moby Dick represents a goal.

Ahab's Pipers

The pipe that Captain Ahab smokes throughout the voyage represents happiness in Ahab's life. Once he tosses it over the edge of the ship in his pursuit to find Moby Dick, all his happiness is lost.

The Pequod

The ship that the whaling crew sails on is a symbol of doom. It is painted black and covered in the teeth andbones of whales. 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. Adorned like a primitive coffin, the Pequod becomes one.

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. He perpetuates the knowledge tattooed on his body by carving it onto the coffin's lid. 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. (Generally symbolizes bringing forth life, from death.)

11. H. W. Longfellow «The Song of Hiawatha»

12. Romanticism poet E.A. Poe and his works.

13. Poetry of the end of the 19^th century (W. Whitman, Emily Dickinson).

14. The role of M. Twain’s novels in the American literature

15. The literature of the 19^th century.M. Twain and his fables.

16. Literature of the fin de siecle period. Henry James. “Daisy Miller.

17. Naturalism and realism. S. Crane and the general characteristics of his novels.

18. American realism. The general characteristics of J.London’s creative work.

19. American realism. The general characteristics of Th. Dreiser’s novels

20. E. Hemingway. The theme of war in his novel “A Farewell to Arms”.

21. The theme of man and nature in E. Hemingway ‘s“The Old Man and the Sea”.

22. Modernism. W Faulkner “The Sound and the Fury”.

23. The tragedy of American people in J. Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”

24. J. Salinger and the image of the youth in his novel “The Catcher in the Rye”.

25. The Beat movement. Allen Ginsberg

26. The peculiarities of the 20^th century drama. Tennessee Williams “A Street Car Named Desire”

27. The literature of lost generation. Fitzgerald’s novels “Great Gatsby”, “Tender is the night”

28. The irony and the critical attitude to the society in O’Henry’s short stories.

29. The life of big corporations in Arthur Hailey’s «Airport»/”Hotel”

30. The drama of the 20^th century T.Williams plays.