1364- CONGRESSO BÍBLICO INTERNACIONAL “MOBY DICK”-English Poem (49) SÉRIE CONTEMPORÂNEO
1364- CONGRESSO BÍBLICO INTERNACIONAL “MOBY DICK”-English Poem (49) SÉRIE CONTEMPORÂNEO
Poem Number 1364
By Sílvia Araújo Motta
Moby-Dick is an 1851, novel
by Herman Melville,
that describes the voyage
of the whaling ship Pequod,
commanded by Captain Ahab,
who leads his crew
on a hunt for the great
whale Moby Dick.
The book's language
is highly symbolic,
and many themes
run throughout the work.
The narrator's reflections,
along with complex descriptions
of the grueling work
of whaling and others
are woven into his presentation
of a very important meditation
on society, nature, and a believed
human struggle for meaning,
happiness, and salvation
by some people of the world.
Moby-Dick is often considered
the epitome of American Romanticism.
The novel frequently employs
Shakespearean devices,
including formal stage directions
and extended soliloquies and asides.
Moby-Dick is a highly
symbolic work, and include:
idealism versus pragmatism,
religion, obsession, revenge, racism,
hierarchical relationships,
social, politics and others,
a number of Biblical themes occur,
allusions to the history of Jonah…
The novel contains large chunks
most of them narrated by Ishmael.
The name Ishmael also appears
in the Bible as that of the first son
of Abraham in the Old Testament.
The name has come to symbolize
orphans, exiles, and social outcasts
in the opening paragraph of Moby-Dick,
Ishmael tells the reader that he has
turned to the sea out of a feeling
of alienation from human society.
Starbuck, the young first mate
of the Pequod, was a thoughtful
and intellectual Quaker from Nantucket,
and there were several actual whalers
of this period named "Starbuck"
Moby-Dick was now read
as a text that reflected
the power struggles
of a world concerned
to uphold democracy,
and of a country seeking
an identity for itself
within that world.
Belo Horizonte Capital,
International Congress,
July, 23-27, 2007.