Symbols In Herman Melville's The Lightning Rod Man

With very little investigation, one may think “The Lightning-Rod Man,” written in 1853 by Herman Melville, is a simple story about a man selling lightning rods who hopes people’s desire to stay safe during a storm and the closeness of the storm will help him in trying convince people to buy his product. Upon further investigation, I do not believe Melville meant for this story to just have one simple meaning. The complex style of writing leave many readers looking for more on what Melville means. In all of his works, Melville used elaborate sentences, imagery, and allusions like when talking about scripture from The Bible that help teach valuable lessons (Wikipedia, 2018). The tale takes place many years ago, in a less modern society. There …show more content…
He also shows how while someone may be very convincing, they are not always correct. All throughout the story, the narrator stood by his belief that his house would be okay in the storm without a lightning rod. The salesman said phrases like "are you so horridly ignorant, then" and used an intimidating tone to try to get into the narrators head, yet the narrator stood firm in his beliefs (Melville,1854 p.14, 17). Near the end of the story, the narrator said his “house is unharmed”, which shows how not everyone is right about everything. I think Melville was trying to teach a lesson to stand firm in what you believe in. After analyzing Herman Melville’s story “The Lightning-rod Man,” many can see just how thoughtful and thought provoking his writing is. He seems to have spoken from experience and wanted to leave his readers with more information and lessons, rather than just information about a man going door-to-door selling lightning rods. It was not intended to be left behind in a past era, but to continue its teaching from generation to generation and from era to era. It is filled with complex ideas and many allusions, leading everyone to have a different impression of each