Herman Melville Research Paper

Many readers and writers today often admire Herman Melville’s works and look to his writings for literary inspiration. Not only was Melville an American novelist, but a gifted short story writer and poet during the 1800s. Melville wrote many popular works in his lifetime, such as Moby-Dick, perhaps the best known novel he wrote. Whether it was traveling on sea expeditions, living among cannibalistic natives on the Marquesas islands, or sufferring much tragedy in his later years, it is fair to place Melville among the most interesting writers of his time.
Herman Melville was born in 1819, in New York City. As the third child of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill, Melville grew up with seven other siblings. Due to the success of the Melville …show more content…
During these years Herman Melville worked at a variety of jobs. First he became a clerk in a bank and later found work in the family business, run by his oldest brother, Gansevoort. Herman Melville also taught school near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and Greenbrush, New York. Still in his teen years, Melville studied surveying at the Lansingburgh Academy in hope to work on the Erie Canal and he even helped out on his uncle’s farm. Finally approaching the start of his writing years, Melville served as a crew member aboard a ship named the St. Lawrence, which was heading toward Liverpool, England. Two years later, he signed up for a more adventurous voyage on the Acushnet, a whaling ship, making its way to the South Seas. During the trip, however, Melville along with a companion, deserted the Acushnet in the Marquesan Island chains after receiving harsh treatment from the captain of the ship. The two men were then held in confinement by a group of people, called the Typees, where they were treated satisfactory, for prisoners. After a month or so as prisoners, the men were able to escape by boarding an Australian whaler. At last, Melville joined the American Navy in Honolulu, so he could sail home as a …show more content…
Many of the storyteller’s novels, such as Moby-Dick and Typee, painted vivid imagary of nature with words. Melville’s writings showed signs of transcendentalist ideas in his works. These ideas were inspired by the romanticism movement, which focused on aspects of emotions, independence and spirituality. It is believed that these aspects of romanticism are natural, which helps the writer bring out his creative and undistracted side. Herman Melville’s works were also very graphic, which allowed the reader to visualize the surroundings being described in Melville’s unique