Herman Melville: Moby Dick

Moby Dick (1851), is now considered one of the classics of

American literature.one of Herman Melville’s main works. Herman Melville when he was the eighteen-year-old young man,he shipped out to sea,first on a short cargo trip,then,at twenty-one,on a three-year South Sea in venture.From the experiences accumulated on this voyage would come the material for his Moby Dick.

Moby dick was about Captain Ahab hates Moby Dick--“the white

devil”--because he lost a leg to the white whale in a fight. Now Ahab, the captain of a whaling ship,can only think of one thing.He has to find Moby Dick and kill him.

Many of the other sailors on the ship don't know about their captain's plan.Ishmael is a young sailor and this is his first whaling job. He and his new friend,Queequeg,sail with Captain Ahab on this exciting-and dagerous--trip.Also on the ship are Starbuck,Srubb,and other whalers from different countries.He is prepared to sacrifice everything, including his life, the lives of his crew members, and even his ship to find and destroy his nemesis.

A section of "Whaling and Whalecraft" features prose and

graphics by John B. Putnam, a sample of contemporary whaling engravings,

as well as, new to this edition, an engraving of Tupai Cupa, the real-life inspiration for the character of Queequeg.

Evoking Melville’s fascination with the fluidity of categories like savagery and civilization, the image of Tupai Cupa fittingly

introduces "Before Moby-Dick: International Controversy over Melville," a new section that documents the ferocity of religions, political, and sexual hostility toward Melville in reaction to his early books, beginning with Typee in 1846.

The image of Tupai Cupa also evokes Melville’s interest in the mystery of self-identity and the possibility of knowing another person’s "queenly personality" (Chapter 119). That theme (focused on Melville, Ishmael, and Ahab) is pursued in "A Handful of Critical Challenges," from Walter E. Bezanson’s classic centennial study through Harrison

Hayford’s meditation on "Loomings" and recent essays by Camille Paglia and John Wenke.

In "Reviews of Moby-Dick" emphasizes the ongoing religious hostility toward Melville and highlights new discoveries, such as the first-known Scottish review of The Whale.

From Foreword through Selected Bibliography, this

Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition is uniquely valuable as the most up-to-date and comprehensive documentary source for study of Moby-Dick It is not difficult for us to guess that Melville had spent how much energy

to write this work.His spirit is worthy studying.

No American masterpiece casts quite as awesome a Mad Captain

Ahab's Melville's monumental Moby-Dick.Mad Captain Ahab's quest for the White Whale is a timeless a searing parable about human lost in a universe of moral ambiguity.It is the greatest sea story ever told.

Far ahead of its own time,Moby-Dick was largely misunderstood and unappreciated by Melville's contemporaries.Today,However,it is indisputably a classic.

As D.H.Lawrence wrote,Moby-Dick"commands a stillness in the soul,an awe??and it is one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world. Moby-Dick is a highly symbolic work, and is interesting in that

it also addresses issues such as natural history. Other themes include obsession, religion, idealism versus pragmatism, revenge, racism, hierarchical relationships, and politics.

All of the members of the Pequod's crew have biblical-sounding, improbable, or descriptive names, and the narrator deliberately avoids specifying the exact time of the events and some other similar details. These together suggest that the narrator—and not just Melville—is deliberately casting his tale in an epic and allegorical mode.

The white whale itself, for example, has been read as

symbolically representative of good and evil, as has Ahab. The white whale

has also been seen as a metaphor for the elements of life that are out of our control, or God.

The Pequod's quest to hunt down MobyDick itself is also widely

viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate goal in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. Furthermore, his vengeance against the whale is analogous to man's struggle against fate. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the Pequod's occasional encounters with other ships, called gams. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his quest: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns. Some such things are hinted at early on in the book, when the main character, Ishmael, is sharing a cold bed with his newfound friend, Queequeg.

Truely to enjoy bodily warmth,some small part of you must be

cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.

Ahab's pipe is widely looked upon as the riddance of happiness

in Ahab's life. By throwing the pipe overboard, Ahab signifies that he no longer can enjoy simple pleasures in life; instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his obsession, the killing of the white whale, Moby-Dick.

After reading the work, you can easy to find its sadness.

Oiginally, the seven chracters can have a peaceful life in some corner. But they cost their lives at last, only one person survived. This is whose fault? Ahab? The answer is not.maybe we can blame that society or time, because in that time, they do not know the strenghth of nature quite well.Maybe we can summarize it in the confict between man and nature.I hold if man do not hurt the whale, it may be have not aggressivity. Maybe moby dick want to reflect this conviction,human beings should obey the natural rules.The man and animal rise or fall together.if you intend to change the structure of ecology,then the nature must revenge you.So we said what the most important is the human can not be lost.

Nowadays,Moby Dick has become the first-class novel work in

nineteen century around the world.it has been adapted into movie and plays.I believe more people can find illumination in it,and will not repeat the tragedy.

 

第二篇：白鲸记英文读后感

Moby Dick        

Brief Introduction

  The novel, Moby Dick, was written by Herman Melville, an American writer. The book I read was published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research in 2004. The book contains 286 pages.

Main Contents

  Ishmael was the only surviver in that wreck. The story was told by him. Ishmael worked as a schoolmaster, but sometimes he liked to adventure. Whenever he felt a little down from life, he would stop his work and head for the sea that brought back and restored his spirit. This time he decided to go aboard a whaling ship. In a hotel he met with Queequeg, a harpooner. Later on they became closed friends. Ishmael and Queequeg reached the Pequod. Captain Peleg was one of the two owners of the Pequod. Another was Captain Ahab. Actually Ahab was the captain of this ship.

  A white whale, Moby Dick often killed people and he ate Captain Ahab’s leg. He had promised he would chase him round the Cape of Good Hope and round Cape Horn and round the flames of Hell before He gave up. He had signed the men aboard his ship to chase that White Whale over all sides of the earth until he coughed black blood and rolled over. During the sea travel, they also killed many whales but Ahab still insisted to kill Moby Dick. Ahab looked after the trail of the White Whale. In the first day of hunting Moby Dick they had a fierce fighting with Moby Dick. Fedallah disappeared.On the second day’s chase, all the crew except Ishmael were dead. It was Queequeg’s coffin life saver that saved him. Finally Ahab did not kill Moby Dick.

Excellent episode

1.I worked as a schoolmaster, but sometimes I would feel that I needed a bit of change. So, whenever I felt a little down from life, I would stop my work and head for the sea. There was something about the sea that brought back and restored my spirit, my drive in life. For this I could always count on the sea.

2.No, my way of escaping the reality of my hometown of Manhattan, New York, was going to sea as a plain, ordinary seaman. I liked the exercise of being a seaman. Most importantly, I was able to travel to far-away places and experience things that I would never experience if I stayed in my hometown.

3.Floating all alone at sea, I had much to think about. I thought of Ahab going after his goal even thought it meant death, and of the White Whale’s answer of revenge. The memory of Queequeg’s kindness protected and kept my spirits alive, just as his coffin chest now kept my body above the sea.

Reflection

  When I am reading the fighting between the crew and whale,especially the White Whale, I feel I am one of them. After reading the novel I want to talk about it from different sides.

  Ishmael was a schoolmaster but he liked to adventure. If his life was smooth, he would feel bored. He liked to head for the sea. There was something about the sea that could bring back and restore his spirit, his drive in life. Today we are in a comfortable society and we enjoy the comfort. We live without passion.However, we lost our soul. We do something against morality. Our material life is rich but we are lacking morality. Society is full of coldness and we cannot smile at the strange. We lost the nature of human beings. I believe we don’t want to live in such society, so we should do something meaningful to improve ourselves and make our society full of warm.

  Many people who have read the novel admire Captain Ahab for his perseverance.

He had a great aim to kill the White Whale.They think the White Whale was the symbol of the devil and Ahab was the symbol of justice. However, I have the different idea. I think Captain Ahab was selfish. For the revenge for his leg, he didn’t care about others’ lives. Many people were dead for his selfishness. Many people think Captain Ahab was the great man who wined over the nature and who didn’t believe in the God. Actually I think he is a killer of the nature. He was rude. Animals are our friends and we should make friends with them. However, he killed them. He lost his leg, which he deserved. He made the sacrifice for what he did. We could not harm the nature or we will have the bad result just like the dead the White Whale had killed. We should have harmony with the nature.

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