Moby Dick Essay Example for Free

Moby Dick Essay Melvilles Moby Dick is widely recognized as one of the most complex and brilliant allegorical novels in American literature. As an allegory, the events, places, people and conflicts depicted in the novel represent not only the obvious surface-level elements of the novel, but stand as indications of the novels philosophical and metaphysical themes. The allegory of Moby Dick involves an examination into the nature of reality and also into the nature of good and evil, as defined for Melville partially by Americas Puritan heritage. Melville wanted to portray the essence of evil in a symbol, which was the whale, Moby Dick. When Ahab says All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks, (Melville) he is echoing the allegorical construction of the novel in which each thing, such as the whale, Moby Dick, is merely a pasteboard mask (Melville) which hides the true essence beneath, an unknown but still reasoning thing (Melville) which puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask (Melville). For Ahab, the white whale is the mask which disguises truth and the revelation of the nature of reality. In this sense, the white whale becomes a symbol for whatever it is that holds mankind back from the perception of absolute reality. Ahab emphatically reveals his Platonic beliefs when he says If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there`s naught beyond. (Melville) In this sense, the whale represents oblivion, the naught beyond which in Ahabs mind is plainly associated with death. It is toward the heart of the nature of reality that Ahab strikes with his blood-sealed harpoon, not merely a fish in the ocean. For Ahab the white whale represented both ultimate reality and the wall which separates man from ultimate reality. Ahabs view of nature and reality is that the visible world and all of the events, people, and actions in it are indicators of deeper, more profound, metaphysical ideas and experiences: when he hunts the white whale which represents evil and oblivion, he is hunting the absolute nature of evil, not merely one of its beasts. The intense hate that Ahab feels for the white whale helps to distinguish Ahabs view of reality as presented in the novel form the vision of reality Melvile was trying to establish by way of the allegory of the novel. While Ahab believes the white whale to be the symbol of evil, Melvilles depiction of evil through the allegorical structure of Moby Dick is shown, ironically, through Ahab himself and not through the symbol of the whale. Instead, for Melville, the whale symbol indicated the cosmic universe and was exhaustively related through his use of cetological detail and science. In this way, Ahabs obsession and hate are shown to be a tragic flaw along the lines of some of Shakespeares heroes, after whom Ahabs dialogue explaining his motives for hunting Moby Dick are clearly derived. As Ishmael gains a closer, more intimate apprehension of whales, the development of his character and spiritual insight are correspondingly elevated. The more detailed are the cetological experiences and catalogues, the more wholly expressive and self-possessed and sure becomes Ishmael. Still deeper correspondences between the cetological material and Melville’s narrative form are established in Ishmael’s descriptions of the whales â€Å"blubber† and â€Å"skin† which he posits as being indistinguishable. This is reflected in the narrative structure of â€Å"Moby Dick† where it is equally as difficult to apprehend where the â€Å"skin† (overt theme and storyline) of the novel ends and the â€Å"blubber† (cetological and whaling discourses and catalogues) begin. Melville makes it perfectly clear that the â€Å"blubber† is an as indispensable part of his novel as it is for the whale’s body. â€Å"For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane; or, still better, an Indian poncho slipt over his head;† (Melville) therefore, too, is the expository material, the â€Å"blubber† of the novel wrapped around its central, allegorical aspects. The detailed cetological aspects of â€Å"Moby Dick† may, indeed, prevent the reader from an easy, and immediate grasp of the novel’s â€Å"meaning† or even its astounding climax. Just as the whale’s hump is believed by Ishmael to conceal the whale’s â€Å"true brain† while the more easily accessed â€Å"brain† know to whalers is merely a know of nerves, the secret â€Å"core† of â€Å"Moby Dick† can only be pursued with patience and close, deep â€Å"cutting†due to the organic and harmonious nature of its narrative form. By keeping in mind the previously discussed aspects of the relationship between â€Å"Moby Dick’s† comprehensive cetological materials and their symbolic relationship to the novel itself, its form and themes, Ishmael, while discoursing on the desirability of whale meat as fit food for humans, offers an ironic gesture toward the novel’s probable audiences. â€Å"But what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his exceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be delicately good† (Melville).

The Internet and the Catholic Church Essay -- Exploratory Essays Resea

This essay addresses the question: Does more harm than good come from the internet? And the answer is sought from the largest Christian denomination (one billion members) - the Catholic Church. There is no condemnation of the internet by this church body; rather the Vatican, official voice of the Catholic Church, maintains that the internet is "not a threat"(Church). Calling the Internet an opportunity and a challenge and not a threat, the Vatican issued two documents encouraging the church to embrace the technology and help guide it to benefit all humanity. The documents said the Internet's interactive nature could help the church achieve the vision of communication between its members, moving away from the one-way, top-down communication of the past. Among practical responses to potential ethical and social problems related to the Internet, the documents recommended more industry self-regulation, a voluntary church "certification" of sites that call themselves Catholic, and careful supervision of children's Web surfing(Ethics). The two 27-page documents, "Ethics in Internet" -- a reflection on ethical issues -- and "The Church and Internet" -- an assessment of online pastoral opportunities -- were released at a Vatican press conference. The documents were prepared by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Russell Shaw, a U.S. journalist who serves on the council, headed the drafting process. The Internet ethics document emphasized the technology's tremendous power and opportunities, saying it could help bring together every person on the planet in a "world governed by justice and peace and love"(Ethics) "Today it takes no great stretch of the imagination to e... ... Internet than their elders, it said good parenting might require adults to improve their Internet fluency. The fundamental parental duty here is to help children become discriminating, responsible Internet users and not addicts of the Internet, neglecting contact with their peers and with nature itself. It recommended that parents install filtering technology in computers that are available to children "to protect them as much as possible from pornography, sexual predators and other threats"(Church). WORKS CITED: Church and the Internet http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/index.htm. Ethics in Internet http://authors.va.mondosearch.com/cgi-bin/MsmFind.exe?CFGNAME=MssFind.cfg&QUERY=ethics+in+internet&EN=X&FR=X&DE=X&IT=X&PT=X&ES=X&NO_DL=X

Carpe Diem Poetry

ENG. 1102 Paper 1 Carpe Diem Poetry â€Å"To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time† by Robert Herrick and â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† by Andrew Marvell are two great examples of Carpe Diem poetry. Their vivid imagery, symbolism, and usage of simile and metaphor are what make these poems memorable. Their usage of these terms also makes the poems more inviting and makes the usage of the Carpe Diem tradition more apparent. Likely risque for their times, I find both poems somewhat romantic and tame for our time period.The primary metaphor of â€Å"To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time† is â€Å"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying; and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying†(961). This opening metaphor makes it clear that the theme of this poem is Carpe Diem. From my understanding and also from my introductory Latin class Carpe Diem is popularly known as â€Å"Seize the Day† though this is not the literal translation . Roses are fresh and supple like youth; they are fragile, beautiful, and pure. These are characteristics also associated with virgins. I have found in many literary works that virginity is compared to a rose.Herrick is urging the young to enjoy their youth before it evades them. â€Å"The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun, the higher he’s a getting, the sooner will his race be run, and nearer he’s to setting† is another metaphor using the personification of the sun to show the passage of time (916). The sun is an example of life; the more time that passes, or the rather the farther the race is run, is the closer life is to come to an end or the closer to the sun setting. The sun and it’s rising and setting is something that is very commonly used on obituaries to mark the birth and death of a person. That age is best which is the first, when youth and blood are warmer; but being spent, the worse, and worst times still succeed the former† (916). The p revious passage is the speaker saying that everything is better when you are young. You are livelier and more warm blooded when you’re young; and everything after that gets worse and worse. This is true from a physiological standpoint; as you age the way your hormones work change and the process that build up substances needed in your body slow and at times stop, an example of this medically is osteoporosis.The last stanza of the poem reads, â€Å"Then be not coy, but use your time; and while ye may, go marry: For having lost but once your prime, you may for ever tarry† (916). I believe the speaker is saying to the reader don’t be shy, don’t waste your youth, marry now while your young and beauty; and while you are filled with life and vigor. Once your beauty is gone it may be harder or it may be something that you may never do. Due to this poem being in the love and hate section of our book and also with it being about virgins, I can’t help, but t hink that this also has some subtle sexual connotations as well.I think this because the speaker is urging virgins and not just people in general to make the most of life. The speaker also uses the symbolism of the rose as a comparison for youth, but a woman transitioning for a virgin is also compared to a flower blooming. Between â€Å"To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time† and â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† I find that â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† uses the most imagery; and because of that it is my favorite of the two poems. â€Å"Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way to walk, and pass our long love’s day.Though by the Indian Ganges’ side shouldst rubies find; I by the side of Humber would complain† (951). I found this opening stanza important, because it set the stage for the Carpe Diem theme. The speaker has compare the ladies coyness to a crime because they don’t hav e enough time. This automatically says to me as he reader that he wants her to give up her shyness and give into him because they may never get the chance. He spends telling him mistress all the time he would spend praising her body, but saves her heart last.Though he suggest that he would take his time loving his mistress he then states, â€Å"For, lady, you deserve this state, nor would I love at a lower rate. But at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near† (951). This is the speaker again stating that there is not enough time for them to wait any longer because time is quickly approaching. The speaker also states that his lust for her will turn to ash soon if they continue to wait and that her long preserved virginity and honor will also turn to dust. He is urging his mistress to be with him by constantly referencing death, â€Å"The graves a fine and private lace, but none, I think, do there embrace† (951). I have found that of the two poem s that â€Å"To His Coy Mistress does not put as much emphasis of seizing the day in general, but more so of seizing the moment now sexually. Though there were some references from the speaker about is mistress heart most of the references were in regards to his sexual desires. He references love several times, but warps it with his immediate cause for action. It seems that this speaker is using his love for her or saying that he has love for his mistress as a way to bring about her deflowering.This must be something that is a recurring trend across time periods as this can also be found much more apparent and much more frequently in our time period. Works Cited Herrick, Robert. â€Å"To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time. † Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen. Literature: The Human Experience. 10th. Boston: Bedford/st Martins, 2010. 916 Marvell, Andrew. â€Å"To His Coy Mistress. †Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen. Literature: The Human E xperience. 10th. Boston: Bedford/st Martins, 2010. 950-951

A Response Paper On Christopher Steiner’s

Christopher Steiner’s article entitled ‘Authenticity, Repetition, and the Aesthetics of Seriality’ talks about the ‘mechanical reproduction of art’ at the height of technological improvement and technical production nowadays.He discusses Walter Benjamin’s essay entitled ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in the issue that: first, mechanical reproduction is not just a new form of technical production but engenders â€Å"an entirely new philosophy of production in which the work of art is emancipated† (Steiner 88); and second, that the mechanical reproduction and consumption of art makes the object more accessible to wider population (88).His argument, therefore, is that â€Å"to justify the authenticity of tourist art one must begin from an entirely different starting point† (89), since tourist art should be viewed as a culturally valid, authentic art.   He argues that mass-produced art carries a n authenticity, which it shares with other mass-produced objects in the industry.What I argue, however, is that mechanical reproduction of art does not carry anymore the authenticity and validity of what a true art should be—that it should be an expression of views, beliefs, and culture of an individual or a number of individuals.   Objects that undergo mass production are merely ‘reproductions’ of the original item.   The true ‘art’ is in its originality.This means that, although the reproduced object is an exact image of the original object, it is merely a mimic and is not an expression of the self.   When it comes to being culturally valid, however, I agree that objects that undergo mass production are, indeed, culturally valid, since it reveals a certain aspect of culture that, though reproduced again and again, still holds the originality and the individuality that the culture and the people reflect.Art is like what a human being is: it is a reflection of culture and society, yet it cannot be an exact replication of the other—for there is none like it.   Mass-produced objects of art contain authenticity and validity in terms of culture art, but not as an individual art.Works CitedSteiner, Christopher.   â€Å"Authenticity, Repetition, and the Aesthetics of Seriality: The Work of Tourist Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.†Ã‚   [name of book].   Ed. [name of editor].   Place: publisher, year.   87-103.

A Beginners Guide to the Neolithic Period

A Beginner's Guide to the Neolithic Period The Neolithic period as a notion is based on an idea from the 19th century, when John Lubbock split Christian Thomsens Stone Age into the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) and New Stone Age (Neolithic). In 1865, Lubbock distinguished the Neolithic as when polished or ground stone tools were first used but since Lubbocks day, the definition of Neolithic is a package of characteristics: groundstone tools, rectangular buildings, pottery, people living in settled villages and, most importantly, the production of food by developing a working relationship with animals and plants called domestication. Theories In archaeological history, there have been many different theories about how and why agriculture was invented and then adopted by others: the Oasis Theory, the Hilly Flanks Theory, and the Marginal Area or Periphery Theory are only the most well-known. In retrospect, it does seem odd that after two million years of hunting and gathering, people would suddenly start producing their own food. Some scholars even debate whether farming- a labor-intensive task which requires the active support of a community- was really a positive choice for hunter-gatherers. The remarkable changes that agriculture brought to people are what some scholars call the Neolithic Revolution. Most archaeologists today have abandoned the idea of one single overarching theory for the invention and cultural adoption of farming, because studies have shown that circumstances and processes varied from place to place. Some groups willingly embraced the stability of animal and plant tending while others fought to maintain their hunter-gatherer lifestyle for hundreds of years. Where The Neolithic, if you define it as the independent invention of agriculture, can be identified in several different places. The main hubs of plant and animal domestication are considered to include the Fertile Crescent and the adjacent hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros mountains; the Yellow and Yangtze river valleys of northern China; and central America, including parts of northern South America. Plants and animals domesticated in these heartlands were adopted by other peoples in adjacent regions, traded across continents, or brought to those people by migrations. However, there is increasing evidence that hunter-gatherer horticulture led to independent domestication of plants in other locations, such as Eastern North America. The Earliest Farmers The earliest domestications, animal and plant (that we know of), occurred some 12,000 years ago in southwest Asia and the Near East in the Fertile Crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the lower slopes of the Zagros and Taurus mountains adjacent to the Fertile Crescent. Sources and Further Information Bogucki P. 2008. EUROPE | Neolithic. In: Pearsall, DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 1175-1187.Hayden B. 1990. Nimrods, piscators, pluckers, and planters: The emergence of food production. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9(1):31-69.Lee G-A, Crawford GW, Liu L, and Chen X. 2007. Plants and people from the Early Neolithic to Shang periods in North China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(3):1087-1092.Pearsall DM. 2008. Plant domestication. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. London: Elsevier Inc. p 1822-1842.Richard S. 2008. ASIA, WEST | Archaeology of the Near East: The Levant. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 834-848.Wenming Y. 2004. The Cradle of Eastern Civilization. pp. 49-75 in Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on Chinas Past, Volume 1. Xiaoneng Yang, editor. Yale University Press, New Haven.Zeder MA. 2008. Domestication and e arly agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(33):11597-11604. Zeder MA. 2012. The Broad Spectrum Revolution at 40: Resource diversity, intensification, and an alternative to optimal foraging explanations. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31(3):241-264.Zeder MA. 2015. Core questions in domestication research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(11):3191-3198.Zeder MA, Emshwiller E, Smith BD, and Bradley DG. 2006. Documenting domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology. Trends in Genetics 22(3):139-155.

The Effects of the Leadership Style of the Principal on School Climate Dissertation

The Effects of the Leadership Style of the Principal on School Climate - Dissertation Example Another important area and aspect which needs to be discussed here are related to the skill and quality of leadership and the way through which this particular skill can be integrated and nurtured within children especially at the level of their high school education. This is because this skill of leadership needs to be developed within children from the very first day and moreover it is with the help of this skill which guarantees the progress and leverage of any educational institute of the world. ... Â  Out of these the first one is the realization of the fact that educational institutes are not places where individuals get their passing certificates from, but also they are training centers from which students receive an idea about the ways through which the world operates and the different type of surprises that the world outside the school premises awaits them. Moreover, the training that they receive in their high school prepares them to face any difficulty in their life with utmost ease and convenience. (Gross and Furey, 1987) But in order to successfully inculcate all these characteristics within the students, it is important to understand the very fundamentals of the process which can lead to this and out of all others the process of leadership and that of the principal is the most important. Students whether they are in high school, college or university are overwhelmingly influenced and inspired by the ways through which the principal of their institute handles the diffe rent type of organizational affairs that they encounter on an everyday basis. In other words, it is the leadership and its manifestation with which students develop that influence towards their principal. (Glickman, 1990) During the course of this discussion, we would be looking at the different leadership styles through the help of which the academic performance of students can be enhanced and can be made more effective in terms of implementation. It will be on the basis of the variables of leadership types demonstrated by principals and the subsequent effect that they have on the performance of the student.

Health Policy Value Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Policy Value - Essay Example Quality is more important to patients than any other factor in regard to health care. Spirituality demands that the society should be able to take care of the underprivileged. Members of the society should not be left to die in the emergency room based on the fact that they cannot afford insurance costs (Porter & Teisberg, 2006). I personally believe that life is precious and costly beyond price. For this reason, I think that in spite of the cost constraints that exist in the healthcare setting, people should be served and lives saved at all possible costs. A good health care system is one that engages the community’s resources wisely and ensures that the coming generations will find the same resources for their good and development. American citizens do not get quality health care for their money. The health care system in America cannot be compared to those found in other countries. Health care leaders and institutions should be careful in the way they handle health care resources to ensure that clients do not continue paying high costs for medical care. Insurance has been the main issue concerning money in health care. Every individual in the society should not be forced to have health care insurance. Uninsured clients should not be left to suffer during emergency because they did not purchase health care insurance. It would be unethical not to take care of a bleeding patient in the ER since they do not possess health care insurance. Health care should be affordable to all citizens in America (Porter & Teisberg, 2006) Quality in health care should never be associated with cost reduction. Quality should be the determining factor in health care. Physician performance improvement in health care should be based on the significance of services they present to clients. There should be measures put in place to measure quality and improvement of quality. However, quality in health care remains to be