Suggested Reading:
Moby-Dick, or The Whale, by Herman Melville… of
course.
Quote:
-from “Chapter 23: The Lee Shore,” Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, or The Whale
“Know ye,
now, Bulkington? Glimpses do ye seem to
see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but
the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while
the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous,
slavish shore?”
Outline of the
Argument:
Part II: The Lee Shore
Key word: apotheosis
I. Apotheosis: elevation
to divine status.
Chapter 23,
“The Lee Shore,” contains Melville’s entire perspective on humanity.
It
is not the central tension, or metaphor, or even central question.
It
is the trunk of the novel, from which the branches extend.
Lee shore: the shore towards which the
wind is blowing.
II. Melville offers two perspectives on humanity.
First:
Humanity is glorious.
Bulkington is us—or what we wish to
be: strength, energy, and mastery.
Great
literature testifies to our great human story.
Melville defines a greatness of spirit in humanity… but
there’s more.
Second:
Humanity pays a price for its glory.
American independence makes for a
perfect symbol.
Wuestion:
can we distinguish between independence and isolation?
[Caspar David Freidrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea]
Is
he fearless, bold, and intrepid? Or
alone, forlorn, and vulnerable?
The Lee Shore is
“…the stoneless grave of Bulkington.”
Melville
leaves monuments to meaning throughout text.
What
kind of monument is a “stoneless grave?”
Humanity
is small; our story is lost to the bigness of Nature.
Melville also
reveals a vulnerability of body in
humanity.
III. The novel primarily explores these two perspectives in
conflict: Ahab vs. Ishmael.
We want to
be great, even divine, but we are not.
But, greatness can be felt in
literature—imagined in the smallness one feels upon the sea.
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