I want to explore the quote “A whaleship was my Yale college and my Harvard” along with the character of the pale usher. I feel very strongly that Melville puts so much effort into teaching the reader how to read because it’s also how we learn to read the world but he is also stressing that the reader should not assume that all knowledge is to be found in books, through words that someone else has written. It is also important to have a strong connection to the natural world around us. The train of thought needs to be fleshed out more but I do want to find scholarly articles about transcendentalism to tie into my essay.
Moby-Dick
ECL 522: Fall 2025. Professor Pressman
I like this idea very much. I might prompt you to return to the Emerson’s “American Scholar” essay, which began our class. You might consider how this novel is responding to Emerson, showing us through quotes about educating oneself by learning to read nature. I would caution you against using Transcendentalism as an anchor for your argument without explaining what that word means; and definitely use scholarship to define it!. I think you’re better off showing where there’s Transcendentalism in Emerson and Melville’s texts and why that matters to notice, not just pointing it out. Great start here!