Moby Dick Essay Example for Free

Moby Dick Essay Melvilles Moby Dick is widely recognized as one of the most complex and brilliant allegorical novels in American literature. As an allegory, the events, places, people and conflicts depicted in the novel represent not only the obvious surface-level elements of the novel, but stand as indications of the novels philosophical and metaphysical themes. The allegory of Moby Dick involves an examination into the nature of reality and also into the nature of good and evil, as defined for Melville partially by Americas Puritan heritage. Melville wanted to portray the essence of evil in a symbol, which was the whale, Moby Dick. When Ahab says All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks, (Melville) he is echoing the allegorical construction of the novel in which each thing, such as the whale, Moby Dick, is merely a pasteboard mask (Melville) which hides the true essence beneath, an unknown but still reasoning thing (Melville) which puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask (Melville). For Ahab, the white whale is the mask which disguises truth and the revelation of the nature of reality. In this sense, the white whale becomes a symbol for whatever it is that holds mankind back from the perception of absolute reality. Ahab emphatically reveals his Platonic beliefs when he says If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there`s naught beyond. (Melville) In this sense, the whale represents oblivion, the naught beyond which in Ahabs mind is plainly associated with death. It is toward the heart of the nature of reality that Ahab strikes with his blood-sealed harpoon, not merely a fish in the ocean. For Ahab the white whale represented both ultimate reality and the wall which separates man from ultimate reality. Ahabs view of nature and reality is that the visible world and all of the events, people, and actions in it are indicators of deeper, more profound, metaphysical ideas and experiences: when he hunts the white whale which represents evil and oblivion, he is hunting the absolute nature of evil, not merely one of its beasts. The intense hate that Ahab feels for the white whale helps to distinguish Ahabs view of reality as presented in the novel form the vision of reality Melvile was trying to establish by way of the allegory of the novel. While Ahab believes the white whale to be the symbol of evil, Melvilles depiction of evil through the allegorical structure of Moby Dick is shown, ironically, through Ahab himself and not through the symbol of the whale. Instead, for Melville, the whale symbol indicated the cosmic universe and was exhaustively related through his use of cetological detail and science. In this way, Ahabs obsession and hate are shown to be a tragic flaw along the lines of some of Shakespeares heroes, after whom Ahabs dialogue explaining his motives for hunting Moby Dick are clearly derived. As Ishmael gains a closer, more intimate apprehension of whales, the development of his character and spiritual insight are correspondingly elevated. The more detailed are the cetological experiences and catalogues, the more wholly expressive and self-possessed and sure becomes Ishmael. Still deeper correspondences between the cetological material and Melville’s narrative form are established in Ishmael’s descriptions of the whales â€Å"blubber† and â€Å"skin† which he posits as being indistinguishable. This is reflected in the narrative structure of â€Å"Moby Dick† where it is equally as difficult to apprehend where the â€Å"skin† (overt theme and storyline) of the novel ends and the â€Å"blubber† (cetological and whaling discourses and catalogues) begin. Melville makes it perfectly clear that the â€Å"blubber† is an as indispensable part of his novel as it is for the whale’s body. â€Å"For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane; or, still better, an Indian poncho slipt over his head;† (Melville) therefore, too, is the expository material, the â€Å"blubber† of the novel wrapped around its central, allegorical aspects. The detailed cetological aspects of â€Å"Moby Dick† may, indeed, prevent the reader from an easy, and immediate grasp of the novel’s â€Å"meaning† or even its astounding climax. Just as the whale’s hump is believed by Ishmael to conceal the whale’s â€Å"true brain† while the more easily accessed â€Å"brain† know to whalers is merely a know of nerves, the secret â€Å"core† of â€Å"Moby Dick† can only be pursued with patience and close, deep â€Å"cutting†due to the organic and harmonious nature of its narrative form. By keeping in mind the previously discussed aspects of the relationship between â€Å"Moby Dick’s† comprehensive cetological materials and their symbolic relationship to the novel itself, its form and themes, Ishmael, while discoursing on the desirability of whale meat as fit food for humans, offers an ironic gesture toward the novel’s probable audiences. â€Å"But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be delicately good† (Melville).

The Ancient Regime :: essays research papers

The Ancient Regime The Old Regime took place during the fifteen hundreds and are conflicted by the enlightenment in the middle seventeen hundreds. The Old Regime thoughts and ways are different politically and economically then the enlightenment world. The Old Regime thoughts are based upon God and the church. The people believed that God was the ruler of everything and God was what makes things happen and work. People of these times had no concepts of science or reason. People believed that things happened because God made them happen. If you had thoughts that were different than that you had to answer to the church and there could be serious penalties to pay. During the period of the Old Regime, there was no other governing other than the church, which caused serious conflicts for the monarchies of this time because there was a constant battle over the power of the people, and who was going to rule over them. The church had the entire rule and the kings of these times would have to discuss with and go through the churches before they could make any decisions. The reason that they had given so much power to the church was out of fear. The thrown was afraid of making God angry so they would do anything in their power to keep God and the church satisfied. One way of making sure God was happy was to give the power to the church, this included money or taxes that were collected. Women's role in society was hardly important to the people of these times. Women in this time were not thought about very highly. They were thought of and treated as property. Women had it hard in these times, because men were so intent on their superiority over the women. There were hardly any times that women were rulers. In the late fifteen hundreds a man named Francois Hotman wrote Francogallia which is his best known work. In this work he discusses women and how he thought of them. He implied that they were not fit to be rulers or even contribute to the thrown. He discusses some of his occurrences with women rulers and how they all seemed to demolish what they had been given, and every thing ended up in destruction including their thrown. Religion was a very serious subject in this time, since everything revolved around God and the church religion was the largest part of people's lives.

Jesus Christ and Miracles Essay

A miracle is basically an event that cannot be fully explained by science and sometimes defies logic and reasoning. Generally, miracles are attributed to positive things such as a person suddenly being cured from devastating or a person waking from a deep coma after a lot of years. However, miracles are also attributed to persons and possibly the best person whom miracles are associated with is Jesus Christ. According to Wikipedia, Jesus Christ performed many miracles which include curing the sick, exorcising demons from people, controlling nature, and raising dead people, among others. Moreover, possibly the most popular miracles that Jesus performed based on Wikipedia are the turning of water into wine, the exorcism of seven evil spirits from Mary Magdalene, the healing of the mute, the blind, the deaf, and the leper, walking on water, the multiplication of small amounts of fish and bread, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the transubstantiation of bread and wine, and his own resurrection from the dead, among many others. Basically, according to Wikipedia, Jesus performed miracles in order to show everyone that the divine power of God, His Father is real. In addition, the general view of the Catholic Church according to Wikipedia is that Jesus mainly performed miracles not only to help those who are in need but to convert non-believers into believers. However, according to Wikipedia, modern analysts of the Bible claim that miracles that Jesus performed were merely symbols and metaphors. For example, healing the blind served as a symbol for people who could not see the truth even though it is presented clear on their faces and healing the dead was a metaphor for people who could not or refused to listen to the truth. Nevertheless, the prevailing perception still is that miracles are the good, yet improbable things that happen in a person’s life and that Jesus Christ is the main performer of these miracles Works Cited Wikipedia. org. 2008. â€Å"Jesus. † 12 April 2008 .

Explain The Business Environment Of Metro Bank - 1141 Words

Introduction: The business and business environment is worth on everything on upon centre and outward influences that have demonstrative impact by what method the business purposes together with workforces, trades, managing, funds and claims including the business code of practice. Its assessment and achievement turn out to be unbearable. The business environments are made of entirely those features that must behaviour on the professional. The term business setting is a point to people outside services, issues and bodies. These are further than the controller of separate business governments and their managing and disappointed the business initiative. Company Overview: For choosing Metro Bank, it has many employees and clients those are†¦show more content†¦Different types of organization and purposes are given below Figure: Organization types Source: (Baxter, 2013). Public Organization: Public organization like Metro Bank is the type of organization that is helps to operate by the government for making the purposes to give the opportunities to the populaces of that country. It is not generating to make profits. Various organizations are run by the government for the profit and their people like sign up law enforcing activities, structure of transportation conveniences hospital making etc. Private organization: The private organization is made by the citizens who are not confidentially spoken for contained within the government for generating profits for their personal. The businesses are privately own by some of or one citizens and after operating these businesses are known as a small business. As like Ledbury, it is one kind of private business or organization because of owning it privately and activities for making profits. These types of organization are carrying out the payments for employees. Voluntary organization: This type of organization is the organizations that are operating activities including the unpaid system for staffs for example some volunteers are working in this type of organization. This type of organization is not making for profits generates. It is only build to give the services to the local people. Showing a view of this type of organizations are such as naturallyShow MoreRelatedThe Signifiance of Financial Accounting in Business World1256 Words   |  6 Pagesin the business world Hong Kong has long been a prestigious international financial centre attracting global enterprises investment. Being as competitive as in UK and the U.S., Hong Kong has its word-to-mouth sound financial reporting system, contributing to a healthy business environment. Audited financial reporting is mandatory for business enterprises to properly disclose appropriate information to public. 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