Herman Melville’s Moby Dick tells the story of Captain Ahab and his chase after the infamous White Whale. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is a nonfiction account chronicling his two year stay at Walden Pond and his philosophical reflections. The main purpose of each novel contributes to the writing style and use of literary devices. Herman Melville and Henry David Thoreau had similar writing styles and used the same literary devices, but accomplished vastly different goals.
Melville and Thoreau use many of the same literary devices to enhance the writing. Symbolism is present in both books. The ship the Pequod in Moby Dick represents a man, because “they were one man, not thirty” (Melville 636). Everyone on the ship faced the same enemy, the
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Both authors include rhetorical questions in their novels. In the chapter “The Advocate”, Ishmael dissolves any arguments made by those ignorant of whaling, and to rebut any possible claims, he poses a question. When he refutes the claim that whalers are scoundrels he asks, “No good blood in their veins?” (Melville 145). In Walden, Thoreau also uses rhetorical questions to make the reader think about the nature of humankind. When Thoreau wrote about haste, he asks, “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” (58). Both novels include anecdotes. Thoreau inserts anecdotes to illustrate specific points. When he talked about society not needing him, he included a story of an Indian who tries to make money weaving baskets. He offers his baskets for money to a lawyer, but he declines. The Indian replies, “What! do you mean to starve us?” (Thoreau 15). Melville uses anecdotes only a few times, less than Thoreau. He includes one to tell the reader that Ishmael sees a whale skeleton and took measurements of it to include its dimensions (523). Both books have allusions for descriptions and emphasis of points. Ishmael informs the reader that the Nantucket harpooners in early times “overrun and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders”, referencing Alexander the Great, conqueror of a vast empire in 4th century B.C. (Melville 94). Thoreau references
Thoreau uses figurative language to show how people stress about many problems in their lives and that it makes their lives difficult. For example, he states “Let us spend one day as deliberately as nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails.” He compares nutshell and mosquito to irritating problems we have that we get thrown off by. He wants us to take all the junk that we don’t need out of us and focus more on living life without stress. In addition, he also mentions “In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for that a man has to live.” In this text, Thoreau uses a huge metaphor to explain
Comparing Metaphors in Norman Maclean's, A River Runs Through It and Henry David Thoreau's, Walden
Analysis: Melville's Great American Novel draws on both Biblical and Shakespearean myths. Captain Ahab is "a grand, ungodly, god-like man … above the common" whose pursuit of the great white whale is a fable about obsession and over-reaching. Just as Macbeth and Lear subvert the natural order of things, Ahab takes on Nature in his
Harton, Ron. "Henry Thoreau as a Model for Nature Writing." 9 August 2009. The Thoreau Reader. Online Document. 17 March 2014. .
Likewise, these are used to purposely prompt the audience to think about the point being made, rather than elicit an answer. Further provoking the audience’s exploration into the objection to slavery and war, he expedited his own beliefs in the midst of constructing a commonly rejected belief with an urgent antidote for the people. Thoreau asks the audience why one would allow unjust laws against others to exist: “Unjust laws exist:. transgress them at once? Why is it not more.
“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” once stated by Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau was a simple man with a simple life. He yearned for simplicity. He was a very wise man as well. In his piece of writing “ Where I Lived and What I Lived For” Thoreau explains a life of simplicity separated from the complexity of society. In “Where I Live and What I lived For” Thoreau most effectively appeals to pathos through the use of allusion, similes, and imagery.
How people see one another vary in numerous ways, whether it be from actions or what is gathered through spoken conversations. When an intellectual meets someone for the first time, they tend to judge by appearance before they judge by how the person express their thoughts or ideas. In Thoreau’s excerpt, he emphasizes the importance of his philosophy, especially by making sure the reader is aware of his own feelings about it. He puts literary devices such as metaphors, personification, and imagery to construct his explanation for his philosophy as well as provide several attitudes to let the reader identify how he feels towards people and the value of their ideas.
Throughout the passage many devices appear so the reader can have a deeper understanding of Thoreau’s attitude towards life. “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation;
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...
Henry David Thoreau wanted to express his thoughts to the world. He did so by writing Walden a book that gives insights on the world from Thoreau’s point of view. “Walden” gives valuable advice in all types of fields. It shows aspects of Thoreau’s personality and how he views the world. To the best of my knowledge, Henry has many characteristics that he expressed in this book. Most of what he wrote was impressive. Honestly, I was extremely enthusiastic about reading this. Initially, I thought it would be a book like Great Expectations. But my expectations were wrong. I did not think I would actually learn things. Surprisingly, it sparked motivation in me. I wanted to be more in touch with nature. It seemed like Henry David Thoreau had everything figured out. He was calm and thoughtful and he seemed to look at life in a different way. Being in solitude in nature must really get you in touch with your inner self. It allows you to look at your flaws and look at your talents. I was greatly intrigued by every page of Walden.
Herman Melville’s stories of Moby Dick and Bartleby share a stark number of similarities and differences. Certain aspects of each piece seem to compliment each other, giving the reader insight to the underlying themes and images. There are three concepts that pervade the two stories making them build upon each other. In both Moby Dick and Bartleby the main characters must learn how to deal with an antagonist, decide how involved they are in their professions, and come to terms with a lack of resolution.
He pointed out everything he thought was wrong with the new world we live in saying we “live too fast” and “our life is frittered away by detail” (Thoreau 181). He ended his piece by saying “Why should we live with such a hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.” (Thoreau 183). He believed that our lives were becoming unnecessarily complicated and he promoted “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” (Thoreau 182). He even used a metaphor of the railroad to show that in our need for increased transportation, the mistreatment and death of laborers was occurring in the U.S. saying, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides up on us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them.” (Thoreau
To conclude, Thoreau believed that people should be ruled by conscience and that people should fight against injustice through non-violence according to “Civil Disobedience.” Besides, he believed that we should simplify our lives and take some time to learn our essence in the nature. Moreover, he deemed that tradition and money were unimportant as he demonstrated in his book, Walden. I suggested that people should learn from Thoreau to live deliberately and spend more time to go to the nature instead of watching television, playing computer games, and among other things, such that we could discover who we were and be endeavored to build foundations on our dreams.
Specifically, Melville uses tone and allusion to send a message of the risks of obsession and idolizations. The character Captain Ahab is very important to the furtherance of the plot. He is the main reason that the whaling ship is out at sea. Ahab is in search for 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.