Herman Melville

color white is usually connected to innocence and purity; however, in “Moby-Dick”, the quintessentially white sperm whale defies the qualities attached to its color as Ahab sees it as the archetypal evil. In a novel overwhelmingly about whaling, Melville frequently explores colors and their meanings and use them to paint a picture of characters and sceneries in the readers’ minds. Yet, he goes to the far extremes of the color spectrum to describe anything. Most of his characterization are either…

What makes you ‘you’? Perhaps the answer to the question varies from group to group; Perhaps, we are a collection of our physical, mental, and spiritual components, all unique and different. The Birthmark is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1843. The audience is introduced to a brilliant scientist, Aylmer, whose life revolved around his experiments and quest for scientific perfection. While controversial, Aylmer abandons his laboratory to marry Georgiana, a beautiful woman that…

The Scarlet Letter: Prompt 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson were among a group of authors known as the Romantics that valued feeling over reason, imagination over science, and nature over civilization. These ideals are commonly displayed in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Like any writers of the same time period, Hawthorne and Emerson may have never completely accepted each other's beliefs, however the characters that Hawthorne creates agree with Emerson’s advice, “[d]o not go where…

and hopefully better able to face the challenges of the adventure. A critical attribute that the mentor often gives is confidence. Clemenza shows great confidence that Michael can perform the job and reassures him that all will go well. Although Clemenza plays the mentor in this earlier part of the film, Vito is the one giving Michael advice later on, after recovering from his assassination attempt. After the hero receives the supernatural aid, he is ready to continue on his journey. Stage 4,…

In Herman Melville’s novel, “Moby Dick”, the protagonist, Ahab, is a whaling captain. He is fixated on killing and conquering a huge white whale that had bitten off his leg in a previous encounter. Though his manic behavior may be regarded by some as a sign of greatness, this is not the case. Instead, Captain Ahab’s character is that of a revenge-obsessed, egotistical, and mentally unstable man. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator explains that Captain Ahab paces the deck of his ship,…

Beady eyes, long bodies, and pinchy fingers are some attributes that make humans unapproachable. Unfortunately, they have also managed to selfishly devour a majority of the living species they come in contact with, including lobsters. David Foster Wallace wrote an essay titled, “Consider the Lobster,” to inform the public about the issues that has been happening between the lobster consumers, lobster defenders, and their feelings towards boiling alive the aquatic crustacean. Wallace is obviously…

For my analysis, the story that I've chosen is the Kraken by Arthur Lord Tennyson. The poem itself is derivative of the Norse legend of the creature, a more than giant squid-like monster that was rumored to live off the coasts of Norway and Greenland. It is said that the legend of the Kraken is most likely based on sightings of giant squids, who - like the Kraken - lay in the depths, but have reportedly surfaced in order to cause havoc and attack sailing vessels. It is often the victim of wild…

changes during the story, when Bartleby suddenly starts a series of noncompliance with his employer, who is the narrator of the story. The narrator asks Bartleby to assist in examining copies, to which Bartleby responds, “ I would prefer not to” (Melville 21). Despite this seemingly brazen act of defiance, Bartleby states his preference politely and with calm authority, which stuns the narrator, as he does not expect an employee to give his personal opinion. With this act of negation,…

I completely agree with Dan McCall’s argument. Although it seems to be very vague, I believe the point he is attempting to get across is that the narrator in Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is meant to be seen as a virtuous and rational. This is contrasting to most analyses because to write a unique analysis or close reading of Melville’s masterpiece authors are forced to play the Devil’s advocate. This often leads to analyses that are simply meant to astonish, but when reading the story it…

Comparison of “The Most Dangerous Game” and the “Young Goodman Brown” This essay will compare two short stories: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown and Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game. Works do not have similarities at the first sight. Stories are about a century apart (were published in 1835 and 1924 respectively), have different plots, types of characters and conclusions. However, it is possible to make a comparison and find both similarities and differences in these stories.…