1. Literary Timeline in review
New Land/Puritanism –
Native Americans
Oral Traditions: legends, myths, poetry
Puritans (The Crucible)
Religious, sermons, histories, private
Age of Reason (Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine)
Persuasive, public, non fiction, speeches
Age of Romanticism (“Devil and Tom Walker,” “The Raven,” “Thanatopsis”)
Creative, imagination, poetry, short stories…
Transcendentalism (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau)
Oversoul, truth in nature, non-fiction, belief in self

2. Anti-Transcendentalists
Valued intuition over reasoning – but realized humanities faults
Believed nature is not the spiritual doorway to the universal soul; not all signs of nature are good and harmless
Believed Transcendentalists ignore the concept of Original Sin; some things are evil and not all things are perfect
Anti-Transcendentalists explored literary themes
between good and evil
wrote about the psychological effects of guilt.
They were the first to present psychopathic characters in larger literary pieces (novels) and explore the realms of madness and the deranged mind.

3. Herman Melville and his most important masterpiece Moby Dick
Melville is considered an
Anti-Transcendentalist
Born - August 1, 1819-
Died - September 28, 1891

4. Moby Dick or
The Whale

5. Melville’s Major Work – Moby Dick
an encyclopedia of everything =
history, philosophy, religion, the whaling industry
a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fate

6. Images of the famous
Moby Dick

7. Moby Dick or The Whale Published in 1851
Moby Dick is Melville's most famous work and is often considered one of the greatest literary works of all time.
Part epic, part adventure story, part allegory
It was dedicated to Melville's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne.

8. Moby Dick
The Pequod

9. Moby Dick - The Plot Narrated by a young sailor, named, Ishmael
Ishmael goes go to Nantucket to seek work on a whaling vessel.
Ishmael befriends a ‘native’ by the name of Queequeg, a harpooner.
They join a rough crew on a savage looking ship, The Pequod.
Queequeg
The Pequod
Ishmael

10. Moby Dick - The Plot, continued
They meet Captain Ahab, the mysterious, peg-legged captain--his leg taken by a great white
whale named Moby Dick.
Thus, Ahab turns the ship’s quest into tracking the whale and killing it as revenge.
His behavior becomes monomaniacal, leading everyone into danger.
Captain Ahab

11. Setting Most of the action takes place on the ship in the 1800s
More on the
famous ship!
The Pequod The ship is a symbol of the world and all of its peoples- it is microcosm of the entire world
Setting Most of the action takes place on the ship in the 1800s
Microcosm
Small (micro)
World (cosm)

12. The Pequod – A Symbol a symbol of DOOM
The ship is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones
Tribe did not long survive the arrival of white men (extinct)
Named after a Native American
tribe in Massachusetts
like a primitive coffin
a symbol of DOOM
the mementos of violent death

14. Captain Ahab Lost his leg to Moby Dick in past.
Obsessed with killing the white whale.
Has a compassionate side when speaking of his family and his care for Pip.
He is an example of the destruction that revenge brings.

15. Moby Dick , from THE QUARTER DECK
Ahab’s desire– to catch Moby Dick, the White Whale!
Gives a ‘Pep Rally’
Performs a ‘Communion’ with officers and crew
Captain Ahab

16. The Narrator of the book,
“Call me Ishmael”
Ishmael – narrator of the novel; a junior member because of his inexperience
Biblical reference – Allusion –
Ishmael…Son of Abraham and Hagar, a wanderer
The Narrator of the book,
Moby Dick

17. Starbuck – First Mate Starbuck questions Ahab’s judgment
He is a religious man who believes that Christianity is a way to interpret the world around him
Voice of Reason

18. Other Crew Stubb – 2nd mate Flask – 3rd mate Loves to sail the seas
Hardened seafarer
Older than others
Answers to 1st mate
Flask – 3rd mate
Loves to drink
Loves the sea
Answers to 2nd mate

19. Queequeg - Harpooner
He is a composite of African, Islamic, Polynesian, Christian, and Native American cultures.
Shows Ishmael race doesn’t determine character.
Ishmael’s best friend
Excellent harpooner
A prince
Brave and generous

20. Other Harpooners Tashtego – Daggoo – A Native Indian from
Martha’s Vineyard, one of
the last of a tribe about to
disappear.
He embodies certain characteristics of the “noble savage” and is meant to defy racial stereotypes.
Daggoo –
An African
He stowed away on a whaling
ship that stopped near his home.

21. Minor Characters
Pip – a young black boy who fills the role of cabin boy.
Lost at sea for a night a becomes….half mad, half prophet.
Fedallah – a strange “Oriental” (a Persian fire-worshipper)
smuggled on board for his skill at killing whales and prophecy.
Peleg and Bildad – owners of the boat, The Pequod
Father Mapple –former whale man now a preacher
Captain Boomer – jovial captain who lost his arm to Moby Dick

22. Moby Dick (character) The great white sperm whale Took off Ahab’s leg.
He is well known by all seamen, and feared.
He is symbolic of nature’s indifference to man.
Moby Dick…Symbol of nature; a Wall; a pasteboard mask.

23. Voyage route of the Pequod

24. Not exactly a big hit…at first…
It did not, however, make Melville rich.
The book never sold its initial printing of 3,000 copies in his lifetime, and total earnings from the
American edition
amounted to just
$ from his
publisher, Harper &
Brothers.

25. Popular today because….
Part Adventure/Quest story
Man vs Monster (Pre-Jaws)
Psychological Thriller--Why can’t Ahab stop?
Deals with universal themes: religion, fate, human nature/quest for power, revenge and race.
We all have a White Whale in our lives?
What is yours?

26. Modern Interpretations