What do you still need to learn/do for your final project?
Melville’s use of circles, physical and metaphorical, in Moby Dick has caught my attention and I will explore that concept for my final project. I have interpreted this shape to be Melville’s discussion of infinity and Eternity, and endless cycles that make up life. For my project, I would like to dive deeper into this concept and find out what is the bigger purpose of it in the narrative and what does it tell us about the overall message of the book. What does Eternity represent for Melville? Should we as readers find the idea comforting, terrifying, or both? Is the point to be nihilistic or optimistic? All important questions for me to consider. In my case, I need to scan the book to find examples of this concept and contrast them with each other on how they are being used and for what. Compiling excerpts will give me a better idea of the kind of argument they make and the argument I will be making. I also need to do more research for the reference part of our project, so I am excited to dive back into our reading list and beyond and let my project take shape from there. Finally, once I have my argument (or while forming it) I’ll decide if it suits me better to do a long essay or choose a creative medium with a short essay. Both ideas sound doable for what I will be talking about, but I’ll give myself more time to decide the medium.