A Parallel Story
After class discussion I feel like Moby Dick written
by Herman Melville is a parody of the Bible. There are various
references of the bible to it that sometimes take a bit of reading but
eventually see that it is true. The beginning of the book starts with Ishmael
the main character of the novel, saying he is grows tired of society and
on the seventh day he has nothing to do and decides to embark on adventure
(Melville 18). In the Bible we see that God is done creating the Earth
and on the seventh day he rested. The seventh day is seen as holy day by
many Christians around the world. At this point we are like well that
doesn't mean anything. If we go to read the book we discover passage that
is very revealing and supports my argument. In page 39 Ishmael observes
that "in the morning any Christina would have washed his face; but
Queequeg, to [his amazement] contented himself with restricting his ablutions
to his chest, arms, and hands. He then...commenced lathering his face"
(Melville 39). This quote provides another part of the bible where in the
"Bible" the people who believed in God and Christ would be bathed in
water to cleanse their sins. Ishmael sees Queequeg's dirtiness and
wildness as sinful and when he is cleansed sees him in a different
light.
As the novel continues and references various stories of the
bible and parallel it I saw in class a passage that intrigued me. The crews of the Pequod have just obtained a
whale and Ishmael describes the ordeal.
Ishmael says,
“…he must
die the death and be murdered, in order to light the gay bridals and other
merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate the solemn churches that preach
unconditional inoffensiveness by all to all” (Melville 282).
In the Bible we
see that Christ is crucified, with his death he brings the happiness of men
forgiveness for men kind. In the passage
above we see this creature be killed for the money that it can give these
people. The same happened with Jesus he
was betrayed by a disciple and that disciple received a profit. As I mentioned before Melville seems to write
a story that parallels the Bible. What could be his purpose? It might be that he wishes to comment on the
way of religion and perhaps the way to do it was by giving his opinion and
hiding it between words. Those who read
his book thoroughly will see Melville’s opinions on various things.
I think that its really interesting that you choose to write about this. Melville does included a lot of bible verses and references in his work Moby Dick. I personally think its because it was such a prevalent topic to talk about at the time that pretty much everyone who read his work would pick up on it, not so much now though.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my paper on how I thought he was mocking organized religion in his writing. He often makes comments about how Christians are more savage then the cannibals and whatnot.
Do you think that these subtle references are in serious use, like he actually is using them to express a point that he agrees with? Or rather that it is just a way for him to introduce some symbolism and depth into his writing? Moreover, im interested to hear what your thoughts are about his meaning behind using these?
To me its either:
1)he uses them to show meaning
2)he agrees with the use of bible verses and wants to show some faith
3)he is mocking the use of the bible
4)a mixture?
what do you think?