Moby Dick Herman Meville Analysis

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Does the background of the story impact the tale? Herman Meville’s youthful experiences were crucial and were basically underlining his artistic life. He was the third child of a family that was to grow of 4 boys and 4 girls. In 1826, he was found to be a bit docile and amiable, meaning that he was slow in comprehension. Following that, he had an illness called the scarlet fever which left him permanently weak eyesight, but that never stop him to go to school. He attended a Male High School, unfortunately his father’s business collapse making them return to Albany in which he applied at the Albany Academy. Later on, in 1832 Melville’s father dies, leaving his family in desperate need of money. The eldest son took responsibility and took over …show more content…

As a matter of fact, this tragedy had a very important effect on the people; especially, when the men went hunting for the whale’s blubber and waxy oil. These men never considered how dangerous the sea can be. In the following manner, the story of Moby Dick symbolizes the power of nature. Furthermore, the story talks about this man called Ahab that is the captain of the Pequod crew; it demonstrates his desire for vengeance on a whale that took one of his legs. Ever since that terrifying moment he has seen the whale as an obstacle or a wall that needs to de eliminate. Herman was inspired by many things, but in the story the captain inspires the crew with money and convinces them to help him get vengeance. In fact, there was this one particular character called Starbuck that said that “Vengeance on a dumb brute, that simply smote you from blindest instinct.” “Pure madness to be angry at a dumb thing”. With this being said, he does not like the idea of vengeance. In addition, because of Ahab’s stubbornness and selfish reasons to take vengeance, he put the crew in harm’s way. This is one of the reasons why the author’s background affected the story of Moby Dick, one example can be when the book that Chase’s son gave to Herman talked about a vengeful whale and a man