Moby Dick by Herman Melville PDF

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Herman Melville...

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Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Moby Dick is a mask, a wall of a prisoner man trying to hit it to make his way out. The white whale symbolizes that wall that imprisons man. For Herman Melville, the white whale was the embodiment of evil, man's struggle with nature, the uncertainty, or the latent homosexuality that some saw in the writer. “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse…”

This beginning, known to the whole world, is the beginning of Moby Dick, the great fictional adventure of Herman Melville. In 1830 when Herman was only 11 years old, his father went bankrupt and died, leaving his widowed wife with eight children in her care. New York City was not generous to the Melville’s family. Herman had to go to work at the age of 14. He done different jobs: as a banker, in a farm and as a teacher. At the age of 18 he decided to embark to England as a sailor on a merchant ship. In 1841 he travelled the Pacific seas aboard the Acushnet whaler. At the time, being a whaler was a bad reputed trade. Moby Dick will become the best example of this trade. “Although the world despises the whale hunters, nevertheless, it unconsciously pays us the deepest homage, yes, an overwhelming adoration, since almost all of them. The candelabra, lamps and candles that burn around the globe, burn as above all so many agrarian ones for your glory.” Herman Melville. As a sailor, the young Melville accumulated experiences to write long pages, he visited remote islands and reached the coast of Japan. He deserted in the Marquesas Islands, was held captive by a cannibal tribe for a month. This experience and adventure would lead to his first novel "Taipi".

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Melville was rescued by an Australian ship, in which he participated in a mutiny for which he was imprisoned for a short time in Tahiti. These experiences would originate the second story of him “Omoo”. He worked for the American navy in Honolulu and then he returned to Boston. With his experiences and knowledge of his hard life as a sailor, Herman Melville began to write. At the age of 31 he had already published 5 stories of maritime adventures (autobiographical). These stories gave him fame but little money. Stories like "Redburne" and "Mardi” were rare literature stories of the time. Readers were not convinced with his writings, on the other hand, the editors did not look favourably Melville's description of colonialism and the Protestant missions. The only experience left unrelated was whaling, and he set about writing it. Money was now a greater need, he married Elizabeth and three years later the couple went to live on a farm in the mountains of Massachusetts. Malcolm would be born there, the first son of his four children. The winter of 1850 he will began to write a book of the whaling industry, the kind of men that works there and the machines and tools that they use. In the first version of the book, the continuing battle of Captain Ahab and the white whale Moby Dick was barely outlined. However, his restless spirit began to take over. At the time he met another young writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne with whom he became close friends, Herman Melville wrote to Hawthorne: "What concerns me individually from my wallet and apart from my wallet, my burning desire to write those books in which they will be failures". He read the Bible and the complete works of William Shakespeare that marked him deeply, and as the novel progressed the plot became increasingly complex (delivery to the publisher was delayed a year). From the beginning of the book, the Puritan morality of the time is threatened when Ishmael (one of the characters and the narrator of the story) shares bed and becomes best friends with Queequeg (a harpooner that they met in New Bedford, Massachusetts). At first Ismael repulsed Queequeg’s strange habits and his shocking appearance (he is covered with tattoos), Ishmael eventually comes to appreciate the man’s generosity and his kind spirit, and the two decide to seek work together on a whaling vessel called Pequod. His bravery and generous friend enable Ishmael to see that race has no bearing on a man’s character.

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“Queequeg was a native of Rokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are…” (Chapter XXII).

The book is a classic maritime adventure that gradually turns into tragedy.

On a pulpit that imitates the prow of a ship, a priest speaks of Jonah's sailors (a biblical character who for disobeying God's words ended up in the jaws of a huge fish). The adventure that Ishmael is about to undertake will not only challenge divine law but also the reason, another great issue of the 19th century. Pequod is guided by a character never seen in the history of literature, Captain Ahab. Ahab, the obsessed captain. Represented as one of the heroes of Greek or Shakespearean tragedy, Ahab suffers from a single fatal flaw, which he shares with such legendary characters as Oedipus and Faust. His tremendous overconfidence in him, his arrogance leads him to defy common sense. He believes that he is a God and that he can fulfil his will and remain immune to the forces of nature.

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Captain Ahab, considers Moby Dick the embodiment of evil in the world and pursues the white whale maniacally because he believes that his inescapable destiny is to destroy this evil. However, unlike the heroes of older tragic plays, Ahab suffers from a fatal event (the loss of his leg from the whale's attack). The character suffers psychological and physical damage. He is both a victim and an aggressor, and the symbolic opposition he builds between himself and Moby Dick propels him toward what he considers to be a predestined end. "All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a white whale. Look ye! D'ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?" - holding up a broad bright coin to the sun— "it is a sixteen dollar piece, men. D'ye see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul. " While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its luster, and without using any words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his vitality in him. Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: "Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that whiteheaded whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke — look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys ! " "Huzza! Huzza!" cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast. "It's a white whale, I say," resumed Ahab, as he threw down the topmaul: "a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out." All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked on with even more intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at the mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if each was separately touched by some specific recollection. "Captain Ahab," said Tashtego, "that white whale must be the same that some call Moby Dick." "Moby Dick?" shouted Ahab. "Do ye know the white whale then, Tash?" "Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes down?" said the Gay-Header deliberately. 4

"And has he a curious spout, too," said Daggoo, "very bushy, even for a parmacetty, and mighty quick, Captain Ahab?" "And he have one, two, three — oh! Good many iron in him hide, too, Captain," cried Queequeg disjointedly, "all twiske-tee be-twisk, like him — him—" faltering hard for a word, and screwing his hand round and round as though uncorking a bottle— "like him — him—" …. (CHAPTER XXXVI).

The crew ship is formed like the young North America with men of all races. The Pequod crew will follow their captain to death. The only character who opposes to Ahab is Starbuck who questions Ahab's judgment, first in private and then in public. He is a Quaker who believes that Christianity offers a way to interpret the world around him, although he is not dogmatic or aggressive with his beliefs. Starbuck is the only one that will stand up against Ahab's insanity. His conscience prevents him from cursing an animal with the embodiment of evil forces, as a source of vengeance towards him.

As Ahab says: There is a God who is the lord of the land and the captain who is the lord of Pequod, knowing that no God is on his side, I request pagan harpooners to give me a drop of blood for their harpoon. I do not baptize you in the name of father if not in the name of which I speak.

The book is full of magical elements and superstition. Allegories, symbols, and allusions continually appear. Melville dedicates one full chapter of the book explaining the meaning for each character of the shiny coin that Ahab has nailed to the pole for the first sailor to see the white whale. Captain’s destiny is written from the beginning, his crazy desire of revenge will kill him. Finally, after an extensive search, Moby Dick appears on the scene. On the third day of the hunt, Ahab orders the crew to lower the boats to go after the whale. The end of the story the huge White whale will sink the Pequod ship and Ismael will be the only survivor (Queequeg coffin will safe him). Throughout the novel, Ismael, who in a certain way carries Melville's voice, has become an Omniscient narrator, he knows what each of the characters think and feel. The masterfully written book is an excellent work on maritime quotes, in which Melville describes the different species of whales, their usefulness and their degree of danger. 5

The book cites famous quotations such as: Aristotle, Cervantes, or Jules Verne, biblical, mythology, maritime treaties, and travel diaries. The novel was published in London in October 1951 under the name "The Whale" and a few weeks later it was published in New York under the title “Moby Dick”. Herman Melville at 32 years of age created his masterful literary work. In the early 19th century, the generation of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, James Cooper, Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville… A century where an American literary spirit was born. Melville unlike other writers he had no blind faith in progress, in American democracy, or in his personal success. He had an apocalyptic vision, he distrusted those values, as well as the extreme Puritanism of the new society. Melville's will live in a continuous search for uncertainty. He was creating something new and original, but he just found himself in a society of misunderstanding. He had some work praise, but there were more who found his book as perverse and monstrous work. After publishing the book, Melville tried in vain to write other types of stories that appeal to a wider audience. "What is forbidden to write is wrong, it does not produce benefits" (Herman Melville). Later he wrote Bartely, a book that pleases the ladies of the time (it was not, too successful). In 1853 the family called several doctors because of the poor mental state of the writer. A relative of Melville once visited him and explained: I laughed at him and I said: “A recluse life will lead your friends think that you are going crazy." Herman replied, "I have come to the same conclusion for a long time ago, but if I let myself be carried away by my madness, my family would starve”. Public opinion influenced his state of mind and in 1957 he published his last novel "the confidence man". At the age of 38 years old, he was defeated, his family had a tragic loss; his eldest son committed suicide at the age of 17 and shortly the loss of another of his children that died of tuberculosis. In 1866 Melville got a stable job as a customs inspector in New York and in 1865 he retired.

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Paradoxically and unfortunately, it happens in many cases in the history of many artists. Herman Melville did not have the great social recognition as a great writer in his life. His masterpiece, Moby Dick will become one of the classic books of American literature, and a world-renowned book, translated and edited in many languages. Even the story of Moby Dick will be brought to the big screen in 1956, directed by director John Huston and starring the famous actor Gregory Peck.

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