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Moby Dick ~ The American Classic


            
            
             The story of Moby Dick is truly an American literary classic. The word classic, itself, means belonging to a certain category of excellence, or having a lasting artistic worth which to most people fits the novel perfectly. Moby Dick was first published in 1851 and to this day is still being studied by many scholars. There is much to be learned from the theme of this novel, as in any book, there is a message or a "moral of the story" type lesson you can learn from Moby Dick that keeps not only the new age scholars interested, but the average reader as well. .
             "Moby Dick is not a dream but a work of imaginative art, and this means that it is the product of a complex creative process- (Arvin; 278). "The intertangled themes of this novel express the artistic genus of a mind that, according to Hawthorne, "could neither believe nor be comfortable in unbelief" (Atchity; 1474). The themes and "richness of purpose" (Atchity; 1474), becomes enticing to read through the wonderfully written character/narrator, Ishmael. Through his character the reader establishes a bond with him, and together get to witness one of the best adventures ever written and of course a powerful lesson. .
             Henry A. Murray-a critic of the novel- wrote an essay concluding that " there are meanings and lessons to be understood in Moby Dick," and that Melville along with his novel will be forever secure if modern critics can continue to discover the meanings of the book (Murray; 280). One of the main meanings or lessons that (as a generalization from critics) is not to become to focused and obsessed with one goal to the point that you exclude the more important things in life. .
             This lesson is represented with Ahab's peculiar obsession with hunting and killing the white whale. By setting this as his most significant goal in life, he begins to ignore more important things such as the lives of his crewmen, and eventually his own life.


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