My thoughts on Moby
Dick:
The book Moby Dick has been an ionic novel since
its creation, more popularly read after the death of Herman Melville though.
Personally I never understood the cult like following and obsession that
schools, teachers, parents and friends have had for the book. My father has a
copy of Moby Dick that he obtained in
his childhood. The book is written in, worn out and weathered. I have seen the
movie on T.V a few times and know the general plot of the book. However I
didn’t realize the mass amount of symbolic references that the book held.
Personally I am grateful that I have never actually ventured to read the book
until now. Granted I have read chapters here and there, but mostly out of
boredom.
I think
that it is a waste to have high school students read the book because the
amount of references to past poems, novels and bible references is amazing. I
feel as though high school students wouldn’t understand the depth that Melville
went into and would only see the surface level plot about hunting a whale.
Granted, this is a very interesting story, but alone the story is not enough to
capture the attention of the adolescence. Even now reading the book as a
college student and fairly avid reader, I find myself struggling to read the chapters
that are purely descriptive of the sea or general whale information.
I think a
more high school oriented curriculum for the reading of Moby Dick would be to have a section of the English class focused
on the myths and smaller stories about the whale hunting in the 1800’s around
America. Then perhaps readers would be able to focus less on trying to
understand how whale hunting is conducted exactly and more on the literary wonder
that is Melville. I think for the most part readers are so focused on trying to
understand all of Melville’s whale rants that they never fully focus on the
things that he is trying to express between these informational overloads.
I'd have to agree. I don't think that I would have gleaned much from this novel if I had read it in high school. I've also noticed some elements that have been integrated into pop culture, namely the line "keep your weather eye open and sing out every time." Throughout the novel, I've been thinking about what it would read like if an edition were to be released that was purely the plot chapters. Of course this won't happen, because nobody will want to deface Melville's masterpiece, but I think it speaks to our perspective as modern consumers of media that we want the novel to grab our attention with drama and hold onto it until the end by keeping the action rolling.
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