Moby Dick Research Paper

The Life and Literary Works of Herman Melville Herman Melville was a famous author with his most popular and well know writing being Moby Dick. Herman was born in New York on August 1st, 1819. As a writer Herman was not financially successful and acquired many jobs during his life. In 1876 he was unpopular and was seen as a minor figure in American literature (Delbanco 294). This is an analysis on the life and literary works of Herman Melville by looking at the stages of his life and how those stages are reflected in his writing. Herman Melville was the third of eight children. His father was Allan Melville and his mother was Maria (Gansevoort) Melville. Herman’s siblings from oldest to youngest were Gansevoort, Helen Maria, Augusta, Allan,

This early essay already started showing elements from Herman’s later writings, most prominently the use of abundant literary allusion (Sealts). Herman’s first novel was Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, published first in London, and then in New York in 1846. This novel was Herman’s most popular work while he was alive, it made him famous as the "man who lived among the cannibals" (Howard). However Herman’s masterpiece was the novel Moby Dick. Published in 1851, Moby Dick is considered one of the most outstanding works of romanticism and the American renaissance. This book draws the experience Herman had at sea while working on a whaling ship, while also gaining inspirations from Shakespeare and the

However his most popular works all involved his life at sea. The novel Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life is loosely based on when Herman was in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands and what he saw and experienced there. In the story he portrays the natives as noble savages and criticizes the missionaries for trying to “civilize” them. In his masterpiece Moby Dick Herman again bases the root of the story of the time he spent on the whaling expeditions. The experiences he had on the whaling ship and the stories he had heard from the other senior sailors. Stories that had told legends of a massive albino white whale that would fight and destroyer whaler’s ship. The first few chapters of Moby Dick very clearly reflects the feelings he had as an ordinary seaman. Moby Dick is a very adventuristic, romantic story that reflect the influences, such as Shakespeare that he used in writing that