Similarities Between Moby Dick And Hawthorne

Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne were close friends when they were both writing their famous novels. The two shared their ideas with each other through letters and meetings, one could imagine; however, this may not have been so perfect. It is likely that they agreed on each other's ideas but also disagreed on some of their ideas too. This is apparent especially in the presentation of the themes of nature and convention in their novels. Melville in Moby Dick believes that one must escape from convention and commerce and go to the sea -- the most natural place in existence. As seen by how Queequeg is this natural brute and cannibal where as the Puritan people follow strict rules of society and religion. On the contrary, Hawthorne in The
He is a prince from a pacific island and came to New England to explore the world as well as make some money along the way. Melville represents nature in his novel as this barbaric and primal state. The oceans are referenced as desolate and expansive places with no civilization to be found. Melville says that one must go from the convention and go to the independence of nature, but it can be a dangerous and ruthless place. It has many negative aspects to it as well and Melville hints to them. He shows the prevalence of cannibalism in two different ways. When we first meet Queequeg in the story he "Be sellin' human heads about the streets"(Melville 35). We see through this that Queequeg is a very natural and barbaric brute who is selling human heads as well as a dark side to the state of nature. Then when Ishmael is on the Pequod, they come in contact with sharks who are eating their own innards and well as others: "They viciously snapped, not only at each other's disembowelments, but like flexible bows, bent round, and bit their own; till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again by the same mouth"(Melville 419). Through these two examples we can see a side to nature that may not be so pleasant to some. This is why so many people stay in convention and don't dare to venture out into the freedom that is nature. However, with freedom and independence, comes difficulties and unspeakable things are done to
He believes that humanity must have an equal balance of both nature and convention in life. Nature is part of who we are, that aggressive and violent nature of wanting everything for oneself, this is nature. Too much of that is a bad thing and that is where convention comes into play, in the mind of Hawthorne. Through the use of convention all of what we would hoard for ourselves is now commonly shared between ones community. Without the help of others in the world one would have great difficulty surviving on basic necessities. Without trade and sharing it would be impossible to make money which the land so heavily depended on for success and a good and easy life. Through the use of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter we see this clearly. Pearl is this gentle young beautiful girl who represents the sunshine and red roses she says, "She had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door"(Hawthorne 127). However, there is also the dark side of nature where she becomes this witch like creature who makes painful noises and has violent actions: "Her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue"(Hawthorne 108). She exemplifies what Hawthorne is thinking the relationship between the two should be. She