There is no doubt that Ahab is the most uncivilized and barbaric of the sailors. Although he is the captain of the ship and holds authority over the entire crew, his actions do not merit him respectability. The harpooners carry a tarnished image by virtue of their profession – they are obligated to massacre the…
Tag: Herman Melville
Myth and Superstition in Moby Dick
The white whale Moby Dick can be looked at as a metaphor or an illusion. It is true that Ahab’s pursuit of it is real and the whale’s sightings by other ships equally honest. But the highly exceptional skin colour for a whale is a deliberate literary device employed by the author. What Melville is…
Reading Response: “Whose Culture Is It, Anyway?” by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. makes a cogent case for pluralism in the American cultural context. In the American academia of today the formation of curricula is largely dependent on the ethnic composition of the enrolled students. This implies that courses that come under the purview of liberal arts are seldom offered in colleges with a…