Sampling And Shrinking In Moby Dick

Staring at the screen, the young author sighed in frustration, her fingers once again failing her as she was distracted by the din of the news on TV. Resigned, she shut it off and turned back to her blank document wishing for the ability to channel her emotions towards the high expectations placed before her, as well as the stigmas. She was growing tired of the starkness of the world around her.

It has been argued that all literature descends from something else. This may include single stories, plays, or even a piece of a prose. This assumption allows us to make connections from two different forms of literature and synthesize them into something bigger. A play and poem can have similar or even identical themes, but can be delivered in many different ways. Lorraine Hansberry of A Raisin in the Sun, and Lynda Hull of “Night Waitress” conveys the message that being a minority is not what makes you who you are, it is your dreams and how you plan to pursue them, is what defines your circumstances. Unfortunately, some overcome adversity, while others are stuck in a daze to distract them from the harsh reality of life.

When I took off the top to that white box on that calm Sunday night, I was instantly transported into this astounding library, that seemed to come out of a movie scene, rows upon rows were piled up with Verne’s, Dumas’, Stevenson’s, and Melville’s. Each week I would open this box and choose a new book. It wasn’t long until weeks turned to days, and I began to greedily treasure my Stevenson’s, truly value friendship with Dumas, prepare for an adrenaline rush with Verne, but most importantly, it was my single Melville that brought me the pinnacle of happiness.

Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that

The teen fiction genre has exploded in the past two decades with a variety of authors producing compelling, relatable works for America’s adolescent market. However, many school systems seem to relegate modern literature to summer reading or book fairs while holding on the traditional lesson plans. While educators are justifiably hesitant to allow modern pop literature to join the ranks of masters, the sixth grade curriculum is lacking in relatable, modern poetry. Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover will fill this void in the curriculum. Alexander exposes preteens to emotionally explosive poetry that blends traditional middle school poetic devices such as alliteration, rhyme scheme and figurative language with twists

A vengeful man, a native, and a man seeking enlightenment board a whaling vessel; this isn’t a joke, this is the United States of America throughout history and the members of the Pequod. Moby Dick is not just a tale about a whaling venture gone awry, it is a metaphor for what America was and is. The Pequod represents the country and government, while the 30 crew members (Melville 430; ch. 126) represents the United State citizens. This would have not been possible to consider in Melville’s time, but it is a true testament to literature being a living text. Melville wasn’t only writing about America in the 1800’s, he was writing about the natures of humanity, and the future of our society.

A story is only as good as the way it is told. The way a writer uses his or her words to say something is just as important as what they don’t say. Charles Baxter, author of plethora of books and university teacher, writes a craft book that goes deeper than the surface of writing and deeper than the words written down. In Charles Baxter’s The Art of Subtext, he discusses how authors can use the words they do write just as much to express what they don’t write.

In literary education, from childhood to maturity, individuals are taught how to write not to improve themselves as critical thinkers, but to fulfill the requirements given to them in a prompt. Whether to analyze or argue, this form of writing has led to a cease of literary improvement in students today, making many question the effectiveness of writing classes. Mike Bunns, in his article “To Read like a Writer”, explores this topic and stresses the necessity for young readers to critically examine the author’s choices in order to improve their own pieces of work. Bunns effectively argues to his audience of college students that improved comprehension comes from focusing on the rhetorical choices authors decide to make in their compositions by tying personal narratives with repetitive questioning throughout his article.

When your life revolves around the sea as ours does, you hear stories. Stories of deep sea monsters, mermaids, giant squids right out of a Moby Dick novel, are just some of the tales we’ve heard. Most stories about mysterious creatures we shrug off as ‘not bloody likely’, but others enter the realm of real possibility.

Literary elements take up substantial fragments in stories today. In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, there is a young boy named Jem Finch and throughout the story, you start to realise that he’s growing up, not physically, but mentally, we call that ‘the coming of age’. Jem’s coming of age experience is developed at Mrs.Dubose’s (a bad tempered old lady) house through conflict, irony, and symbol.

The Multi-Genre Paper is the highlight of my junior year of high school, if not my entire highschool career. It’s composed of many genres; each piece, self-contained, making a point of its own, yet connected to the same topic. My paper about Dr. Seuss, representing the most significant events in his life. Moreover, this project had a very rich context due to its involvement of the skills I’ve gained in school and my childhood memories of Dr. Seuss’ books. My experience throughout this project has enriched my knowledge and expanded my skills. Therefore, it reflects the sponsors of literacy that enabled me to become literate.

In the novel, A Moby Dick, Pip is a young African American boy, who has almost no power on the Pequod. Pip only makes a handful of appearances in the novel, which leads the reader to ask: why does Melville include him in this novel? Pip normally serves as an entertainer for the crew and cleans up the ship. However, after being left in the ocean for hours, he forms a special bond with Ahab. Through their time spent together Pip positively affects Captain Ahab, which is why he is included in the novel.

Many have the desire to control the uncontrollable, or change the unchangeable. This idea is shared through many novels and movies; one of those being Herman Melville’s Moby Dick-a narrated voyage of a whaling ship, the Pequod, and its captain, Ahab, whose one desire was to kill the great Sperm Whale, Moby Dick. As his whaling journey continued, still unsuccessful, Ahab’s character began to change. Many adjectives could be used to describe Ahab’s changing character, but three specific ones are as follows: obsessive, conceited, and manipulative. Ahab’s one desire changes him from an obedient captain to a madman.

In the first chapter of the book, “The Motive for Metaphor”, Frye starts off the book by using a vivid scene of an uninhabited island to illustrate three levels of the human mind and the language for each of them and further explore the use of imagination in literature. Frye then discusses the distinction between the arts and the sciences as “science begins with the world we have to live in, accepting its data and trying to explain its laws” (p23) while “art begins with the world we construct, not the world we see”.(p23) By shedding light on the fundamental difference, Frye argues that literature begins in the imaginative world and stresses his point of an unprogressive literature world even though imagination has no limits.

Here is some life advice; moderation is key. Try to avoid deficiency as well as excess. Nevertheless, someone will inevitably ask: “Can there really be too much of a good thing?” Faith? Love? Knowledge? Yes. Yes. Yes. Even ambition becomes inimical in excess. If you need a second opinion, then look no further than Herman Melville’s book, Moby-Dick. The sailors aboard the Pequod have so much to live for: money, friendship, and family. Unfortunately, ambition consumes these sailors, and deceives them into believing that fate is driving them forward, when it is actually their blind ambition enabling their tunnel vision. Thus, in Moby-Dick, Melville illustrates the virulent effects of having too much ambition, through the sailors on the