Moby Dick Enlightenment Ideas

Herman Melville’s story, Moby Dick, written in 1851, explains how a man, Captain Ahab, risks everything he has so he can get revenge on a whale who caused him to lose his leg. Moby Dick was received, by a survey from other authors, to be one of the “100 best novels of all time”. The novel was also received, by readers, to be one of Melville’s worst Novels. Readers didn’t like the novel because some thought the writing style was too complex, some also thought that it was extremely slow reading. Authors that inspired Melville to write this novel were William Shakespeare, author of “Othello”, and Edgar Allen Poe, author of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” One author that was inspired by Melville was Ron Howard. Ron Howard read Moby Dick and decided …show more content…
“Pleasure could come from the less organized and irrational things in life as well as the organized and rational” is shown in the movie when the crew is catching whales because that is what the whalers all love to do. “The emphasis was on the “hero”, the individual who is willing to stand alone and will die for a cause he believes in” is shown in the story when Henry shoots himself to give all of the others food, Henry is giving the others food so they will live even though he wouldn’t. “To the romantic hero, it was not as important to win as it was to have fought for a noble cause” is shown when pollard tells the truth instead of lying for his family. Another part of the tenets that go along with when pollard told the truth instead of lying is “The romanticist belief was that virtue and truth can be found just as easily if not better, by the heart. What that tenet is saying is that virtue and truth come better from someone's heart and not what they believe from their heads. “Truth can be found within oneself or perceived