Moby-Dick & In The Heart Of The Sea compared

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How do Moby-Dick & In The Heart Of The Sea compare?

In this essay, the books Moby-Dick and In The Heart Of The Sea will be compared on three certain aspects. These aspects are how realistic the books are written, the motives that come forth, and the art of symbolism that both books contain.

Moby-Dick is a book that was written and set in a time when whaling; the hunting and killing of whales, was a big industry in western society at the beginning of the 19th century. The story of Moby-Dick was based on a real-life event, this event being the sinking of the whaling ship known as “the Essex” by a large sperm whale around the coast of South America. In this book, the main character named Ishmael goes along on a whaling ship named “the Pequod” that is hunting for the mythical Moby-Dick; the ginormous whale which caused the captain of the Pequod to lose one of his legs on an earlier whaling expedition. Moby-Dick was written by Herman Melville, an American renaissance man who was a poet and an author. His works were not appreciated by the readers during his lifetime. Despite this, his creation Moby-Dick was rediscovered in the 20th century and is now considered one of the best English literary works of all time. Moby-Dick also inspired plenty of other authors with their literary works. One of these is In The Heart Of The Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick. The narrative of the book is very similar to Moby Dick. The whale hunting adventure is not going perfectly until they take a stop at an island and hear a rumor about thousands of whales in one area, but they were warned since stories were going around about a white albino whale guarding the pack. The Essex was eventually completely destroyed by the white whale they were warned for. While most survived, there was not enough food to keep everyone alive, so they started to eat the ones that passed away due to malnutrition. Eventually they were rescued with only a few surviving.

Since Moby-Dick is based on a real-life event, there have to be some hints of realism in this fictional story. The setting of the book is mostly on board the whaling ship the Pequod. Since Melville went on some voyages on whaling ships when he was younger, he exactly knew how horrible the circumstances were for the average crewmates of a whaling ship (American Experience, 2017). Melville perfectly knows how to express these circumstances in his story through the main character Ishmael. Because of this, the book feels very realistic. Also with effective usage of themes like religion, morals, feelings, and interpretations like good and evil the reader of Moby-Dick can comprehend the feelings and circumstances that the characters find themselves in. Despite these hints of realism, some aspects are unrealistic for the readers nowadays. First of all, some characters are very stereotypical. With Queequeg being the embodiment of unknown African cultures in the book, his character is very exaggerated with aspects of the African culture. When Moby-Dick was written people did not know any better, the American people had little to no knowledge of African cultures. These “weird” characteristics of Queequeg were considered realistic. But nowadays with the general knowledge the average person has about African cultures, many people consider this character to be unrealistic and even offending at some times. These nowadays-unrealistic aspects of characters can be found in many more characters, even in the main antagonist Moby-Dick. When this book was published people believed this monstrosity to be roaming the sea, but nowadays the average person does not believe in Moby-Dick’s existence, making it unrealistic at some times.

The story of In The Heart Of The Sea is told from the perspective of a boy named Thomas Nickerson. The book begins with the writer of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville, coming to visit Thomas. Melville is an upcoming author that is trying to get inspiration for a new novel and here is where the book mentions its first dwelling from reality. Melville came to Thomas because Thomas was rumored to be the only survivor of the Essex crew. According to Britannica (2019), numerous survivors were still alive in 1850 including George Pollard, Owen Chase, Benjamin Lawrence, and four more. Nickerson also was not the one that inspired Melville. A review by ‘the Cynical Historian’ (In the Heart of the Sea | Based on a True Story, 2016) tells it was instead inspired by a book written by Owen Chase, one of the crew survivors, together with a book called Mocha Dick by J.N. Reynolds (Heinz & Enos, 2014). Where the book shines in realism, is the portrayal of how a day in the life of a whale oil farmer in Nantucket goes. The importance of the hierarchical society is shown perfectly, this is no coincidence since the scenery and processing details of the whale are taken almost directly from ‘narrative of the most extraordinary and distressing shipwreck of the whale-ship Essex of Nantucket’, a book by Owen Chase (1820), a true whale oil farmer from the 1820s.

When comparing these two books on realism it is important to understand that Moby-Dick is fiction and In The Heart Of The Sea is non-fiction. Since Philbrick claims that his book is the closest version of what really happened with the whaling ship the Essex, In The Heart Of The Sea does not include moments that can make it unrealistic. But despite this, the book did include some interactions or situations that were proven to not have happened after the book was published in 2000. Melville claimed the same when Moby-Dick was published back in 1851, people actually believed that this story was what happened to the whaling ship the Essex. But with the introduction of the internet, the unrealistic aspects of Moby-Dick were disproven quite easily and the book was declared fictional. So both books had the same sense of realism when they were both published. The only difference is that Moby-Dick’s realism wore off with time and can not be considered realistic anymore today and that In The Heart Of The Sea has more recent information about the sinking of the Essex.

Even though the main motive is not hard to notice while reading Moby-Dick, the underlying hidden motives can be. The central theme/motive of Moby-Dick is revenge. This is because the entirety of the story happens because of captain Ahab’s consumption by the need for revenge. As mentioned in the introduction captain Ahab lost one of his legs to Moby-Dick and seeks to take revenge, thus he declares "I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer" (Melville, 2012). Throughout the book and with each step closer to finding the monstrous sperm whale Ahab gets more and more consumed by the thought of revenge and with this, his choices begin to become more irrational. This lust for revenge may seem like the personal character development of Ahab, but since he is the captain of the Pequod, his decisions affect all of the Pequod’s crew. The course of the story is steered by captain Ahab’s need for revenge. A more underlying motif is duty. The odd thing with this motif is that there is no general duty among the characters. Citing the authors from CliffsNotes (n.d) “the problem is how it is to be interpreted”. For instance, Father Mapple, the first-mate Starbuck says at the beginning of the book that his highest duty lies with god. This does not align with the beliefs of the captain who believes that every crewmate should have their highest duties with himself. The captain also has a duty to himself, the duty to get revenge at all costs. Meanwhile Ishmael feels like he has a duty to his friends on board the ship to keep them safe. This causes him to doubt several reckless orders from captain Ahab. But contradicting to this Ishmael’s feeling of duty towards the captain is also very strong, causing Ishmael to follow the captain’s orders almost every time.

The main motive of In The Heart Of The Sea is the importance and worthlessness of a hierarchical society. This all begins when the main character, Owen Chase, a very reliable, ambitious and admirable whale hunter wants to be captain of the Essex. He was promised to be the main captain by a wealthy whaling council. Eventually George Pollard Jr. becomes captain of the Essex because he carries the name of a well-known powerful family. Owen was furious since he was the better captain. Pollard was a coward, he had no self-confidence and was deficient in everything that makes a good captain. This goes further a few months into the journey where a nephew of pollard is given special privileges because of the family name. Not only this but even among the main crew there was division in class. Quoting the book “The food served in the forecastle had been a grade below the miserable fare that had been served to the boatseerers and young Nantucketers (Philbrick, 2001).” But this all falls when the main ship is destroyed by the white whale. Here pollard loses all his possessions and delicious food that the rest of the crew didn’t get a crumble off. Now they had to survive on three little boats with all the same food to share. this is where pollard eventually comes to realize that he is no better than the rest. Rank and status mean nothing when you’re stranded. On the deserted island he eventually even forgets that he is captain, as Owen is the one giving orders. When they were rescued, everything was soon back to normal, but Pollard does not fully readjust to society’s standards. He becomes a night watchman in Nantucket, which is the job of a peasant. Pollard is fully content with his ‘lower life’ as he doesn’t want to spend his life in privilege anymore because of his name.

A motive that is present in both books is the motive of knowledge. In both books, the protagonist explains one of the reasons why they joined the crew of the whaling ship in the first place. This reason is the search for knowledge of the seven seas, which we as humans know so little about. This fact is also repeated a lot throughout both books. This is why the search for knowledge is an important motive for the protagonists in these two books. In Philbrick’s book knowledge is also shown through good leadership with Owen Chase being shown to make good choices because of his knowledge and Pollard making bad decisions because of his deficiency of knowledge. While the stories are very much alike, next to knowledge the two books do not have any more motives in common. The revenge theme in Moby-Dick completely does not come forward in In The Heart Of The Sea. This also applies vice versa, the hierarchical theme is shown in Moby-Dick, but is not given much attention.

The symbolism in Moby-Dick is one of the aspects that make a lot of readers consider this book to be a masterpiece. These symbols are, even when not directly mentioned in the book, very noticeable. First of all, Moby-Dick is literally the biggest symbol in the book. The interpretation of this symbol is up to debate and differs from each perspective. Some more complex readers may think of Moby-Dick as the powerful embodiment of mother nature herself and that it symbolizes the undefeatable power of nature. But other people who read the book with a more realistic, historical perspective may think Melville wrote Moby-Dick to reverse the horrific experience of whaling, where the roles of hunter and prey are swapped around. Many academic sources like SparkNotes (n.d) back this statement up by having numerous different interpretations of the monstrous sperm whale. Another important symbol in Moby-Dick is the color white. What is so fascinating about this symbol is that white is generally associated with positivity in our society. Meanwhile in the book, from Ishmael’s perspective, white is associated with negative feelings. Secondary sources describe these feelings as “The wealth of white imagery in Ishmael’s description of waves breaking, animals that live in privation, and particularly albinos shows the reader that Ishmael dreads and fears a color that brings most people comfort” (BrightHub Education, 2010). At the end of the book, there is another important symbol brought up. This is the coffin of Queequeg, the best friend of Ishmael on the ship. This coffin symbolizes life and death. The coffin was created by Queequeg when he had fallen very ill, created as preparation for certain death. Because of this the coffin symbolizes death. But when Queequeg somehow managed to recover the coffin was used for another purpose as a buoy. At the end of the book when the ship sinks and Ishmael is in the deep dark sea, the coffin floats by and saves Ishmael’s life. With this the coffin also symbolizes life.

The symbolism that is shown many times in In The Heart Of The Sea is that of the white whale. This is the whale that will be known to destroy everything. While humans have built massive ships to capture the large beasts, the white whale still shows how vulnerable humans are compared to the wide variety of nature’s wild ways. The whale stands for fear and symbolizes human weakness. The sighting of the white whale alone is enough to strike fear among the crew. This is seen from the very first mention of the white whale until at the very end when Thomas Nickerson gets shivers when he sees a whale carved into a piece of wood. Apart from this, the only apparent symbolism can be spotted was the twine of Benjamin Lawrence, one of the few crew survivors. After the whale destroyed the Essex he created a twine out of a piece of rope from his rescue boat. He kept the twine for the rest of his life. “It serves as a symbol for both unconditional hope as well as a reminder to never forget the events that occurred while he created it” (Philbrick, 2018). As a matter of fact, this twine was the only piece of the Essex that was ever brought back so it also serves as a symbol of history and a piece of evidence of the story. The piece of twine is still around in the Nantucket Historical Association in real life, as this part was based on a real story from Lawrence.

Both books adopted the concept of symbolism differently. With the exception of Moby-Dick himself, the symbols in Moby-Dick are quite hard to grasp. Readers have to take an interest in the book and read it with a certain level of literature knowledge to even notice some underlying, hidden symbols. Opposing this, In The Heart Of The Sea has symbols that can be noticed very easily. Almost all of the symbols that are used in the book are explained. An easy way to describe the way both books make use of symbolism is: Moby-Dick is written like a poem, while In The Heart Of The Sea is written like a movie.

So how do Moby-Dick and In The Heart Of The Sea compare? First of all, it can be said that In The Heart Of The Sea is more realistic than Moby-Dick. Not only is it written more realistically in terms of situations that happen, but it is also more accurate to the event both books are based on. Secondly, even though both books have similar stories and characters, the motives do not overlap with each other with the exception of one. Lastly, Moby-Dick uses symbolism less obvious than In The Heart Of The Sea, making it harder for the reader to notice certain symbols.

Bibliography.

American Experience. (2017, September 9). The Life of Herman Melville. American Experience | PBS. Retrieved 16 June 2022, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/whaling-biography-herman-melville/

BrightHub Education. (2010, July 1). Studying Moby-Dick: Themes, Symbols, and Motifs. Retrieved 14 June 2022, from https://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-school-english-lessons/76180-moby-dick-themes-symbols-and-motifs/#motifs-in-moby-dick

Chase, O. (2021). Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantucket. Good Press., from https://mysite.du.edu/~ttyler/ploughboy/1821%20-%20Owen%20Chase%20-%20Essex%20Narrative.htm

CliffsNotes. (n.d.). Major Themes of Moby-Dick. Retrieved 14 June 2022, from https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mobydick/critical-essays/major-themes-of-mobydick

Essex | History, Whale Attack, Survivors, & Rescue. (2019, 8 January). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 June 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Essex-whaling-ship

In the Heart of the Sea | Based on a True Story. (2016, 9 June). YouTube. Retrieved 16 June 2022, from 

Melville, H. (2012). Moby-Dick (1st ed.). Adfo Books.

Philbrick, N. (2001). In the Heart of the Sea (1st ed.). Van Haren Publishing.

Philbrick, B. N. (2018, 9 September). In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex Symbols, Allegory and Motifs. Copyright GradeSaver, 1999 - 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022, from https://www.gradesaver.com/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-the-tragedy-of-the-whaleship-essex/study-guide/symbols-allegory-motifs

Sparknotes. (n.d.). Moby-Dick: Study Guide. Retrieved 14 June 2022, from https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mobydick/

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