HERMAN MELVILLE

While the economy did thrive in the 19th century, it proved much more difficult to bring
about national political unity. Rivalry between the North and the South emerged as a burning
issue which eventually led to a WAR that threatened to split the United States in two. The issue
of slavery was the main cause of the Civil War (1861-1865). Slavery was replaced by a form of
segregation which made it clear that blacks were second-class citizens. The period witnessed the
emergence of 2 cultural movements: ROMANTICISM/TRANSCENDENTALISM (first half)
and REALISM (2nd half).

He was interested in sailor’s lives and most of his early novels grew of his voyages and
trips. “Moby Dick/The Whale” is his masterpiece. It is the epic story of the whaling ship
Pequod and its captain – Ahab – whose obsessive quest for the white hale Moby Dick leads the
ship and its men to DESTRUCTION. It is a REALISTIC ADVENTURE NOVEL which
contains a series of meditation on the HUMAN CONDITION. WHALING is a grand
metaphor for the PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE. His novel is also PHILOSOPHICAL and
TRAGIC. MOBY DICK is an animal (NATURE) that dominates the novel and also obsesses
Ahab. The member of the ship represent all races and various religious, suggesting the idea that
AMERICA IS AN UNIVERSAL STATE OF MIND and a MELTING POT. Melville’s
major themes spring from his concern with the QUESTION OF AUTHORITY and
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. The central theme: THE INDIVIDUAL IN CONFLICT WITH
NATURE (religion and God’s role in the natural world). His young protagonists strain against
the limitations imposed by authoritarian rule (tyrannical ship captains) and they also dream of
escaping the moralistic restrictions of social codes. Melville also showed the danger of
INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY (Captain Ahab = the pursuit of personal desire becomes in an
impossibly to reach happiness). His prose is ENRICHED and COMPLICATED by his use of
symbolism and allusion.