Moby Dick Rhetorical Analysis

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Recommended: Symbolism in Moby Dick

Allegory, satire, and symbolism dominate Melville’s style throughout the entirety of Moby Dick. Some of the most vivid abstractions known to modern fiction go into Moby Dick such as the voyage representing and illustrating the cosmos(Mather Jr.) Furthermore, every aspect of the book represents a different symbol in the grander scheme of life. Melville makes his intentions extremely clear in that his words carry weight and deeper philosophical meaning. Many symbols are blunt as to their significance while others are more or less implied and open to interpretation, but definitive symbols nonetheless. The major allegories in Moby Dick include those that deal with larger aspects that dominate the book such as the ocean, the land, the voyage, and …show more content…

The whale could be interpreted as all the privilege and property of mankind. The whiteness of the whale itself has the deeper meaning of ghostly mystery of infinitude.(Boynton). On the other hand, being that Melville masterfully applied these metaphors and allegories to apply to countless morals and virtues of life, each aspect can represent another meaning. The sea is construed as life. As Melville put it in Moby Dick, the sea , “whose waters of deep woe are brackish with salt of human tears”, has much deeper meaning. Captain Ahab, the protagonist of the story directly and indirectly represents the spirit of revenge. Moby Dick is more of a maze or a labyrinth that Melville created in a shroud of intermingling fantasy, adventure, allegory, satire, and …show more content…

Melville applied immense resourcefulness and ingenuity in writing Moby Dick. Melville strikingly brought zoology into comparison and unison with poetry (Arwin). One common critique of Melville's style in writing Moby Dick is that there were hundred of digressions from the plot. The applied metaphors that seem to stray from the storyline and the meticulously documented chapters on cetology actually add to the overall effect of Moby Dick. These digressions along with those which intricately detail the lore of the white whale all lead to the same tragic outcome and is what distinguishes Melville as a brilliant author (Boynton). The interruptions in the plot which delve into the realm of science or the methods of whaling and its morality are not interruptions at all, but are rather the narrative

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