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Moby Dick_various Interpretations
Moby dick analysis metaphisics
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Good and Evil in a Morally Indifferent Universe in Moby Dick The moral ambiguity of the universe is prevalent throughout Melville's Moby Dick. None of the characters represent pure evil or pure goodness. Even Melville's description of Ahab, whom he repeatedly refers to "monomaniacal," suggesting an amorality or psychosis, is given a chance to be seen as a frail, sympathetic character. When Ahab's "monomaniac" fate is juxtaposed with that of Ishmael, that moral ambiguity deepens, leaving the reader with an ultimate unclarity of principle. The final moments of Moby Dick bring the novel to a terse, abrupt climax. The mutual destruction of the Pequod and the White Whale, followed by Ishmael's epilogue occupies approximately half a dozen pages. Despite Melville's previous tendency to methodically detail every aspect of whaling life, he assumes a concise, almost journalistic approach in the climax. Note that in these few pages, he makes little attempt to assign value judgements to the events taking place. Stylistically, his narration is reduced to brusque, factual phrases using a greater number of semicolons. By ending the book so curtly, Melville makes a virtually negligible attempt at denouement, leaving what value judgements exist to the reader. Ultimately, it is the dichotomy between the respective fortunes of Ishmael and Ahab that the reader is left with. Herein lies a greater moral ambiguity than is previously suggested. Although Ishmael is the sole survivor of the Pequod, it is notable that in his own way, Ahab fulfills his desire for revenge by ensuring the destruction of the White Whale alongside his own end. Despite the seeming superiority of Ishmael's destiny, Melville does not explicitly indicate so. On the contrary, he subtly suggests that Ishmael's survival is lonely and empty upon being rescued: "It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan." (724) That single instance of the appellation "orphan" as applied to Ishmael speaks volumes when taken in light of the destruction of the Pequod and her crew. Melville's inclusion of Ishmael's survival as an epilogue, a suffix attached to the dramatic destruction of the Pequod, suggests that Ishmael's survival is an afterthought to the fate of Ahab and the rest of his crew. Ishmael's quiet words at the beginning of the chapter, "Why then here does any one step forth? Because one did survive the wreck," (723) indicate a deep humility
The Chicago World Fair brought about through the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in America has posed significant value and worth to the city of Chicago. Over a six-month period, more than 26 million visitors from all over the world would flock to the fairgrounds to experience the rebuilt and vibrant city of Chicago. The 600-acre fairground would have housed 200 buildings that showcased new food, art, technology, and entertainment. Chicago became known as the White City, a place of freedom, grandeur, and security. But unbeknownst to fairgoers, there was a serial killer among them. While Dr. H.H. Holmes lured his innocent victims to his “Castle”, just blocks away architect Daniel Burnham built up the dream city of Chicago. Both these men operated at the same time in history, simply blocks apart, both creating legacies that carry to this day. Burnham and Holmes are two side of the coin of human nature. In “The Devil in White City” Erik Larson’s juxtaposition of Burnham and Holmes, and the Black City and the White City, contributes to the understanding of human nature, that one cannot be good without having done evil, and that good and evil are viewed as complementary in their mutual dependence.
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur into many shades of grey allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being. Man is not inherently good or evil but they are born innocent without any values or sense of morality until people impart their philosophies of life to them. In the words of John Locke:
"All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil." This means that all conflict in any work is basically just a fight between the forces of good and evil. The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne show that this statement is true.
Human beings are destroying the world. It's a fact we all know. Pollution is abundant, we chop down rain forests, we kill our own kind, we steal, lie, and cheat, and the list could go on and on. Daniel Quinn believes that this destruction comes from something more extreme than just the notion to survive. In his novel, Ishmael, Quinn believes that the problems facing humanity are do to man's knowledge of good and evil.
Inherent Evil of Man Exposed in Lord of the Flies & nbsp; The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding used a group of British boys beached on a deserted island to illustrate the malicious nature of mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with the changes the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom of their society. William Golding's basic philosophy that man was inherently evil was expressed in such instances as the death of Simon, the beast within the boys, and the way Ralph was fervently hunted. & nbsp; Through the story, Simon acted as the Christ Figure. The death of Simon symbolized the loss of religious reasoning.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
Before exploring Ishmael, Ahab, and Moby Dick and their Biblical counterparts, it is important to understand Melville's background. He grew up as a baptized Calvinist in the Dutch Reformed Church. His parents trained him to obey God at all times, even if God’s commands seem unjust and cruel. However, he quickly turned against his faith after his father died. During his travels, he witnessed diseases, catastrophes, and hatred throughou...
Morrison has said, "I can easily project into other people's circumstances and imagine how I might feel if...I don't have to have done this things. So that if I'm writing of what I disapprove of, I can suspend that feeling and love those characters a lot. You know, sort of get inside the character because I sort of wonder what it would be like to be this person..." Both her novels, The Bluest Eye and Sula, speak to this statement.
Since the dawn of modern civilization the terms good and evil have been used to describe the world and the various things within it. Things ranging from the concepts of the Devil, to the kid the cut in front you in the lunch line in the third grade, evil can be defined in many ways, however, evil is generally defined as something that goes against a single set of moral principles that society has defined. This is not true because evil is something that an individual perceives that they believe will cause them harm and goes against their individual moral beliefs, not some universal concept accepted by everyone.
In the chapter titled Rebellion (or his book title), Feodor Dostoevski’s character, Ivan Karamazov, demonstrates that his angry and resentful attitude is the by-product of his very choosing. The fundamental principal of our own humanity is God’s acknowledgment of our expression of free will. Found between the boundaries of man’s ownership of worldly acts and thoughts, which can lead him to an eternity of joy or damnation, is that critical choice of what attitude we will wrap ourselves in for our finite time here. The extreme, and perhaps somewhat all too common, result of this human choice between simple joy and compounding suffering is presented in Ivan. As highlighted in Genesis account of Gods’ pure joy and pleasure of man, and His authoritative command for man’s dominion over all of His creations, it is impossible to imagine our Creator desiring our willing choice for suffering.
Ahab is dedicated towards regaining control of his life by conquering the whale. His obsession with Moby Dick is what fuels his desire to spend months and months at sea. Ahab is so involved that he tries to get into the mind of the whale. He becomes obsessed with the whale’s every move. Similarly, the narrator is highly analytical of Bartleby’s behavior. He feels the need to know exactly what it is that makes Bartleby ‘tick’. Eventually the narrator is mentally defeated by Bartleby and is forced to change the location of his offices in order to avoid him. Ahab on the other hand is constantly chasing his antagonist and does whatever he can to get closer to Moby Dick.
At first glance, Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, appears to be the story of a man, his captain, and the whale that they quest to destroy. But a closer look reveals the author’s intense look at several metaphysical ideologies. He explores some of the most ponderous quandaries of his time, among these being the existence of evil, knowledge of the self and the existential, and the possibility of a determined fate. All of these were questions which philosophers had dealt with and written about, but Melville took it to a new level: not only writing about these things, but also doing so in a lovely poetic language backed by a tale packed with intrigue. He explores the general existence of evil in his antagonist, the white whale, and through the general malice that nature presents to humans throughout the novel. The narrator, Ishmael, gains a lot of knowledge about himself through his experiences on the whaling voyage, where he also is able to learn much about the phenomenon of existence itself. Also, through Captain Ahab, he sees more about the existence of man and the things that exist within man’s heart. Especially through Ahab and his ongoing quest for the white whale, and also in general conversation amongst the whalers, the issue of fate and whether one’s destiny is predetermined are addressed in great detail, with much thought and insight interpolated from the author’s own viewpoints on the subject.
In Children’s literature, the characters are good or bad. The author attempts to teach the children without confusing them. They are learning right from wrong when doing this. In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Clive Staples Lewis uses this in his novel with his characters. “He parallels the difference between right and wrong” (“Faith”). In the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis shows good vs. evil and the archetypes hero and villain in his novel.
At a time when images of the white settler conquering the "savage" frontier were prevalent in antebellum America, depictions of racial polarization and, alternately, co-existence among different ethnic groups had already begun to find expression in various artistic mediums, from painting to literature. Today more than ever, such works continue to elicit critical re-examinations where race relations, colonization, and literary representation are concerned. While many literary and cultural critics have proposed allegorical readings of political and religious natures, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick can also be read relatedly as an ethnic allegory, where particular scenes and images representing death or destruction illustrate Melville's uneasiness with how white expansionist attitudes are enacted often in tension with or at the expense of different ethnic peoples living within America's geographic borders. For these purposes, I would like specifically to examine Melville's rather unconventional portrayal of a non-white character such as Queequeg. The correlation between his anticipated and ultimate death and the calamitous demise of the Pequod , as a space which rearranges traditional structures of hierarchy and accomodates ethnic diversity, in the end, demonstrates Melville's indecisive anxiety between an imagined fantasy of an alternative social reality and the historical reality of American westward expansionism.
The category for discussion will be the view of good and evil. The group is chosen because human beings often rely on a benchmark to distinguish between moral vices and virtues. There is no distinctive mechanism of discerning between vices and virtuous. There are varying approaches with other people focusing on religion paradigms to determine good and evil.