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Homeward Bound in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

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Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is believed by some to be the greatest literary works of all time. The book takes place in the 1840s and seems greatly advanced for its time. Herman Melville uses many literary techniques that bring about severe imagery as well as insight and education to the readers. One concept that is conveyed in Moby Dick is the journey itself. This is broken into the physical journey, the spiritual journey, and life’s journey. The physical journey of Moby Dick is depicted by the information gained of the labor intensive actions performed on the Pequod as well as other whaling ships. Life on whaling ships does not seem very relaxed. Many hours of sleep are lost at night, some do not sleep at all, and when you …show more content…

In one scene Ahab confides to Starbuck about his great sadness with his life. He has spent 40 years whaling and only 3 on the shore. He starts to realize that his life journey as well as his spiritual journey has been to capture and kill the torturous monster that maimed him. An excerpt that summarizes Ahab’s feelings is from Chapter 132 and reads: Aye, I widowed that poor girl when I married her, Starbuck; and then, the madness, the frenzy, the boiling blood and the smoking brow, with which, for a thousand lowerings old Ahab has furiously, foamingly chased his prey-more a demon than a man-aye, aye! What a forty years’ fool-fool-old fool, has old Ahab been! (p. 404) This excerpt confirms the idea that Ahab has spent his life obsessing over killing whales particularly Moby Dick. He admits that he has become a “demon” in his yearning for vengeance of his lost limb. The other life journey that takes place in Moby Dick is that of Ishmael. From the opening chapters the reader can see that Ishmael is indeed a lost soul trying to find his place in life. From the start the reader can infer that Ishmael thinks down on himself when trying to choose a hotel to stay at. He tries to avoid the expensive ones because he believes they are too good for him. Ishmael has no idea where he is going to stay night after night. This shows his lonesomeness within the story. He decides to start whaling with Captain Ahab and his crew to find his

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