Moby Dick On The Civil War - 991 Words

During this time there were divisions in the united states with talks of emancipation and the uphold of slavery. Because of the southern states wanting to uphold slavery, the depletion of the natural and fertile soil began, forcing slave owners to seek slave trade west where they are originally barred. This led to the United states need for expansion and led to more wars and the seizure of western land from Mexico. The constitutional crisis of the south wanting to succeed from the union because they wanted tighter regulations of slavery, as it related to the north led to the compromise of 1850(sattelmayer 748). Also during this time Melville’s father in law was one of the first northern judge to actually implement the law, sending fugitive slaves back to their masters. This went along with all the domestic issues America was having and the rising of the civil war. Melville comments on both of these events through Moby Dick, â€Å"Moby Dick comments on these events both direct ly and obliquely...The entire plot resounds with echoes of contemporary political rhetoric, in which biblical analogies and metaphors such as the ship of state, the leviathan, and storms at sea figured prominently†(Sattelmayer 748). He also makes many comparisons of political leaders of the time to characters in the novel, including Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster and Judge Shaw, who were both responsible for carrying out the compromise of 1850. Melville compared both of them to captain Ahab. Melville,Show MoreRelatedRomanticism and Realism: Examples of Mark Twain and Herman Melville Novels1398 Words   |  6 PagesWriting through romanticism is a way to express your emotions in a deeper way, but writing through realism is a way to express your true feelings about how the world is. In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick he uses romanticism to express his point. In The War Prayer by Mark Twain, the speaker talks about the real aspects of war. Romanticism first came about in the 18th century and it was mostly used for art and literature. The actual word â€Å"romanticism† was created in Britain in the 1840s. People like VictorRead MoreHerman Melville Research Paper1644 Words   |  7 Pages1841 (Herbert 245). Melville’s adventures at sea truly inspired him to write Moby Dick. On August 4, 1847, Herman Melville married Elizabeth Shaw. They had four children: Malcolm, Stanwix, Elizabeth, and Frances. The family moved to Arrowhead, a farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Here he met and befriended Nathaniel Hawthorne, another famous author of the time. Moby-Dick was dedicated to him. 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