I’ve not yet managed to reword my thesis, but the basis behind the final essay revolves around questions of how to “read.”

Thesis: Through the use of (my creative project) and a passage from chapter 79 “The Prairie”, the grand animal encapsulates the incapability of the human mind to decipher the creature. Melville utilizes the whale and its brow as a symbol of unknowingness. This then poses a criticism towards flawed sciences and a reconfiguration of philosophy.

Essentially, what I am trying to convey is the way Melville talks about the sciences and philosophies behind “reading.” We’ve come to understand that phrenology is a flawed science from this era, but in addition to that, there is also the science behind animal classification. I plan on utilizing the whole “read my brow” section within The Prairie chapter. Alongside my Halloween costume (yes I’m sure you all know the one), it made me think about the fact that we’re still actively kind of “reading” things. How do we know what a whale is, how do we assume to know what a whale thinks, does the whale’s brow mean anything to it, it’s questions like these that make it seem like Melville has something more at play despite the short chapter. The novel has a focus on the inscrutable and unreadable towards nature, and I think it makes a statement that science and philosophy is not a perfect thing. It’s flawed and still actively changing, even now. Albeit, many people still stick to the popular customs and rules of either practice because that is just the grander consensus.