Moby Dick and it's Political Symbolism

Herman Melville himself was very active in the politics of the mid-19th Century in America and used his novel Moby Dick as an allegory representative of many factual, historical events leading up to and including the Compromise of 1850. Melville symbolically created the Pequod's crew to coincide with a lot of the American ideologies with which he fervently disagreed. Among these were the idea of Manifest Destiny, the Mexican-American War, and racial and ethnic inequalities. Through Ahab himself, the ship mates, and harpooners, Melville was able to characterize many of the pockets of people within United States. He was also able to symbolically capture the stories of the people who conversely felt the wrath of America's endless growing. Throughout the novel there are small instances of symbology relating back to Melville's idea that the path America was taking in foreign and domestic relations would eventually lead to its ultimate demise.

Moby Dick and American Political Symbolism

Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick during a time of great political turmoil. In 1850 the United States of America was on the brink of civil war as the North and South became increasingly estranged over issues of expansionism and slavery. In his essay “Moby Dick and American Political Symbolism” Alan Heimert argues that Melville, who was extremely concerned with the future of the Union and the Democratic Party, used America’s political climate during the tumultuous years preceding the Compromise of 1850 as an endless source of inspiration for his masterpiece. John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, both the Whig and Democratic parties, and even the U.S. as a whole are depicted in Melville’s epic tale.

Ishmael’s perspective is likely that of Melville’s own. It is a hopeful vision of the future of the Union: even if the “ship” that is the Union gets torn apart, there will still be fragments onto which those faithful to democracy can cling (Heimert 527).

The “White Whale,” also known as Moby Dick, could have possibly been modeled after Daniel Webster.

Ahab might symbolize Calhoun, or perhaps the South in general. Fedallah may represent traditional Northern thought on African Americans at the time, or possibly his character is there to illustrate the way slavery has served as a catalyst, accelerating the South down their destructive path.

Slave to the Great White: The Large Symbol That is Moby Dick

In “Moby Dick and American Political Symbolism” Alan Heimert looks at Moby Dick as a symbol for all of the political feuds during the 1850’s. It is a must read before attempting to tackle the beast of a novel that is, Moby Dick which dives into great issues such as slavery as well as The Compromise of 1850. Alan Heimert gives a harsh but accurate account of who each of the major characters may be based off as, as well as who the other boats they encounter could be. Who knew there could be so much historical representation in such a seemingly already dense book.

Identifying the Destroyer: The Impact of the Pequod's Historical Context on the Novel

As Louis Heller writes in his essay “Two Pequot Names in American Literature,” the name Pequod may be as elemental as Melville suggests in Chapter XVI “The Ship” when he says “you will no doubt remember that was name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts Indians, now extinct as ancient Medes.” While perhaps readers may have been familiar with the Pequod tribe in Melville’s time, today, the narrator’s seemingly strange assumption creates more humor than significant historical or literary meaning. Historically, the Pequot tribe was originally part of the Algonquin Mohegans. When this tribe moved south into Eastern Connecticut they antagonized and dominated neighboring tribes in the area. As such, the fearful members of surrounding tribes began calling them the Pequots, meaning “destroyers.” This essay examines Melville’s possible intentions for using the name Pequod in terms of how its historical significance may impact Melville’s agent of destruction within his novel.

Moby Dick: Understanding Melville and His Time

America had some of its greatest authors during the 19^th century. This period, also known as “the American renaissance”, was the essential beginning of American literature as the country will still very young. Writers like Thoreau, Emerson, Poe, Whitman, Hawthorne, and Herman Melville were the featured authors of the renaissance. Melville’s probably most known work, Moby Dick, is recognized as a huge part of this period. Any person that is generally familiar with American literature understands the importance and impact that was created by this white-whale of a novel. However, Moby Dick is anything but a simple voyage to hunt down a monolithic whale. Anyone who wants to read the novel with more understanding must appreciate the background of Herman Melville and when he wrote the novel. The author’s experiences and time on the high seas traveling around the world helped make Moby Dick great. Who would have thought there would be philosophy in whales or poetry in blubber? Few novels that deal in metaphysics, or claim to be the descent of muses, contain as much true viewpoint and as much genuine poetry as the tale of the Pequod’s whaling expedition.