Essay/Term paper: Comparing henry david thoreau and herman melville's writings

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Literary Essays

Comparing Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville's Writings



Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville focused their writings on how
man was affected by nature. They translated their philosophies though both the
portrayal of their protagonist and their own self exploration. In Moby Dick,
Melville writes about Ahab's physical and metaphysical struggle over the great
white whale, Moby Dick, symbolic of man's struggle against the overwhelming
forces of nature. Ahab's quest is reported and experienced through the eyes of
Ishmael. Melville's use of the third person's biographical standpoint exposes
conflicting viewpoints that were both in agreement and disagreement with Ahab's
quest, creatively allowing Melville to transcend the story line and expostulate
his own philosophies. In contrast, Thoreau, wrote from an autobiographical
standpoint revealing his own internal conflicts with mans struggle against
nature. In, Walden - A life in the Woods, Thoreau reveals his mental and
spiritual beliefs through a personal journey in which he strives to become in
tune with n ature, working not to be victorious over these universal forces, but
rather to participate in harmony with nature, in tern exposing love and truth.
Both authors attempt to analyze all aspects of nature and its relevance
to human life. They explore the powers and influences of nature over mankind.
However, Melville centers his point of view upon mankind in conflict with
nature's forces, while Thoreau believes that if mankind experiences nature, we
will envelope ideas which will teach mankind to live harmoniously in our natural
environment; in turn, allowing individuals to reach the highest levels of
achievement synergistically with nature.
In Moby Dick, Herman Melville illustrates man's quest to attain the
supreme power of God through the monomaniacal Captain Ahab. Captain Ahab is
obsessed with the desire to destroy Moby Dick, his nemesis, which is truly
symbolic of man's overwhelming quest to control and conquer nature. Melville
depicts Ahab as an evil, egotistical human whose willingness to combat the
forces of nature represents man's failure to understand his place in the
universe. Melville uses Ishmael to voice his philosophies which portray Ahab as
a crazy captain who fails to realize that he's up an unconquerable force.
Melville utilizes Ishmael further voice his life philosophies through grossly
symbolic statements like, "No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor… I have
the satisfaction that all is right; that everybody else is one way or other
served in much the same way - either in a physical or metaphysical point of
view." (pg. 14 - 15). Through, Ishmael, Melville expresses his longing, for
beauty and nature, and a t the same time he contrasts his desires against
mankind's/Ahab's tendencies for the controlling darkside of human nature which
can't and won't interact with nature and consequently leads to its own ultimate
destruction. "Chief among these motives was the overwhelming idea of the great
whale himself. Such a pretentious and mysterious monster caused all my
curiosity… the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale."(pg. 16).
Ishmael sees Ahab as a man possessed, almost demonic in a belief that he
could overcome death and evil. For example, Ishmael sees Ahab for the first
time: "He looked like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has over
runningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them… His whole thigh, broad
from seemed made of solid bronze, and shaped in an unalterable mold, like
Celoni's cast Perseus." (Pg. 111 - 112). Thus, we see a formidable figure
affected by a plague on his soul venturing through the water's of hell to reach
a deadly quest. Ishmael even finds him almost as crucified as the God Ahab
thinks he could become as stated here: "And no only that, but Moby stricken
Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face; in all the nameless regal
overbearing dignity of some mighty woe. "(Pg 111). Consequently, Melville's Ahab
will attempt to transcend his crew and himself into a conflict with nature.
This conflict becomes the warped and demonic idea of a man willing to take on
the power s of Moby Dick which is the epitome of the greatest force in nature.
Regardless of the onslaught, predestined for Ahab, he will be doomed to failure
because of his monomaniacal spirited quest; "As he shouted with a terrific, land,
animal sob, like that of a heart stricken moose; "Aye, aye! It was that accused
white whale that raged me; made a pon pegging lumber of me forever and a day!…
"Aye, aye! And I'll chase him normal Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round
the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up".
Henry David Thoreau when writing about his experiences at Walden Pond
indicated that mankind cannot be persuaded by the materialism of the world and
must aspire to the highest goals of truth, virtue and independence for his
existence. Thoreau would find this transcendental experience through the finest
qualities existing in nature. He states that, "most men, even in this
comparatively free country through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied
with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labor of life that its finer
fruits cannot be plucked by them "(p. 790). Thoreau points out the weakening of
man's original calling by the results of the industrial revolution, division of
labor, the robotics of factory life and materialistic vision of life. The end
result is self-destruction and depression of ones independence, spirit and
development of mental and spiritual heights as described here, "The mass of men
lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed
desperati on. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country and
have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats "(P.791).
Thoreau advocates the devotion to a basic agrarian lifestyle. His
experience at Walden Pond was an experience both into the wilderness, it's
mysteries, its knowledge and wisdom and its being a place to live and review
one's life. It would be an opportunity to cast away the blind belief about
conventional ways, tradition, accepted values almost dehumanizing and to plunge
into the unknown rarness of nature to discover life's meaning for oneself." He
sums up this transcendental philosophy through the mysticism of nature, "We need
the tonic of wilderness, - to wade sometimes in marshes where the bitter and the
meadow - hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to small the whispering
sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the
mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are
earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be
mysterious and un explorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed
and unfathome d by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of
nature."
Thoreau, on the other hand, cannot believe man was created to be
troubled and experience the anxiety created by society. When we are odds with
nature, rebel against it, question it's powers and rules we become ourselves.
Godlike in conflict with what was here before humanity existed. Thoreau himself
would sing in the woods the following song, ("p. 809) - "Men say they know many
things; But lo! They have taken wings, The arts and sciences, and a thousand
appliances the wind that blows Is all that anybody knows"
Again we see the focus on nature and a determination to meet the basic
facts of life, to reduce life to its lowest terms, and to find its essence.
Thoreau strove to follow his inner feelings, thus, having faced life and reduce
it to the essentials, he would then been able to set his own standards and hold
on to them. Thoreau believed that he had to go on his own voyage to Walden Pond
and go alone to experience freedom, free himself first then, and see the freedom
of all nature. as he would say, "Make haste
and set the captive free Are ye so free that cry? The lowest depths of slaver
Leave freedom for a sigh - (P. 807)
The acquaintance with nature by man has always resulted in either
conflict or acceptance resulting in tragedy or revelation for the humans dealing
with nature. Melville portrays a man thoroughly involved with the natural
powers of the sea continually seeking his fame and economic success in the
whaling business. In contrast, Thoreau believed in complete independence
striving for freedom to reach a goal. However, Thoreau, following his inner
feelings, needed to experience life reducing it to its bare essentials and learn
from what nature could teach him. Thoreau was a lover and needed to go on a
voyage by himself, live in seclusion and become close with his natural
surroundings. He encountered the pond with its great fish and looked at them as
a beauty of creation, catching them only to survive but honoring them for their
existence alongside his own. Melville's Ahab dealt with the killing of fish
(Whales) for monetary gain and when this creation of nature rebelled and
crippled him, he sought revenge and destruction of this creature and nature.
Ahab's voyage also was a single lonely Quest to destroy and conquer nature for
his own selfish reasons regardless of the safety of his crew. Thoreau
understood that his Quest was to share the fortunes of nature, its knowledge
and benefits to better your self, which inter for him was achieving his greatest
success as seen in his words, "I am monarch of all I survey, my right there is
none to dispute" (p. 830) . In the end of their Quests Melville's conclusion
about Ahab's encounter with nature results in death and a total lack of
knowledge about what life, living and truth is all about. Thoreau on the other
hand sees everything worth living for in his Quest and results at walden pond.
Both authors realize that nature is a powerful and its forces definitely
control man's existence on earth. However, Melville appears to show man as the
loser in this conflict with nature and Thoreau finds man a winner not because
man can become one with nature and rise beyond the materialism and greed of
mankind.