Captain Ahab and Moby Dick Essay -- essays research papers

Captain Ahab and Moby Dick Literary critics point to a variety of themes and juxtapositions when analyzing Her small-arm Melvilles Moby Dick. Some see the land opposed to the ocean or Fate opposed to free will. Most mention man versus nature or good versus evil. A perspective that seems overlooked though is the perspective of the self and the former(a). The self and other(a) is when one discovers the other ( almostthing non us) within oneself, when one realizes that one is not a single creation alien to anything that is not them. there are many such relationships end-to-end the book, such as that of Ishmael and Queequeg and Ahab and Starbuck. However, this paper will focus on the essential relationship, which is of Ahab and Moby-Dick. By recognizing the other within ourselves, we are saved from hating the other in itself. Captain Ahab struggled to see Moby-Dick within himself, in this began the books main fuss of the self and the other. Before I get to this line lets track the slip of Ahabs development up to that point.Chapters early in the book diagnose Ahab as having lost his leg to Moby-Dick. This character development suggests that Ahab is the victim of an struggle by a vicious animal. However, by chapter 36 The Quarter prettify", Ahab is described as a man infatuated with destroying a owing(p) white whale, named Moby-Dick. By chapter 37 Sun fasten", it is obvious that Ahab is mad and in chapter 44 The Chart", the ratifier is made aware of Ahabs "monomaniac thought of his soul." He was so obsessed with Moby-Dick that he couldnt sleep. Ahab must have had approximately cause for his feelings toward the whale. It seems that Ahab and many other sailors have been exposed to the study of Jonah, which may have established man and whale as enemies. Also, is chapter 54 The Town-Hos fiction" Melville tells of an account of Moby-Dicks capabilities. In this story, Moby-Dick snatches Radney from his ship and takes him below th e oceans surface. However, for some reason Ahab does not hear this story. Melville may be showing the reader that the whale can be violent, and by not allowing Ahab to hear this story he (or the reader) wont be able to use this education as an excuse for Ahabs madness. By telling only the reader of the Town Hos story, both the characters of Ahab and Moby-Dick are developed further. The character of the whale is set up as a dan... ...k this way Ahab created himself. Just like a stamp down and slave relationship the self and the other are linked. There can be no slave without a master and there can be no master without a slave. When a master defeats and creates a slave, the master creates a role as "master" for himself or herself as well. In Melvilles book, Ahab played the role of hunter and Moby-Dick became the hunted. The self/other relationship can be far more complicated than what has been offered here. numerous racists, sexists and those who cannot tolerate homosexua lity do not always follow the standards. Ahab and Moby-Dick are a special case of the relationship, and they are one that deserves consideration. Once over again when I say self/other I am referring to a type of linkage of two separate beings. It is when one (the self) discovers the other (something not us) within oneself, when one realizes that one is not a single being alien to anything that is not them. The main point of this paper is the main problem of the self and the other which is that Captain Ahab struggled to see Moby-Dick within himself. Since he could not see this he hated and became obsessed with Moby Dick and thus asunder of himself.