Final+Product-Capitalism+and+Socialism

ARGUMENT:

Melville is writing in support of socialism in Moby Dick. The whaling ship expeditions spread the profits equally among the crew, and in that sense, express a type of socialism on board the ship. Captain Ahab represents capitalism in his obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, which only contains a kind of personal profit for himself. Ahab's relentless search for individual profit represents capitalism at its worst in the eyes of Melville. However, Ahab's selfish chase ends with the death of the entire crew, symbolizing the ultimate failure of capitalism: its focus on individual benefit takes away from the ultimate benefit of the whole. The only survivor of the fight with Moby Dick is Ishmael, the symbolic figure of socialism with his care for equality among the crew. So, Melville advocates socialism through his story of a capitalist system destroying itself, with only socialism remaining.

[|Moby Dick and Capitalism]

SCRIPT:


 * Moby Dick**: Capitalism and Socialism:


 * Narrator**: In the novel of Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, both the main characters represent Capitalism and Socialism, respectively. Ahab-


 * Ahab**: That’s me!


 * Narrator**: Ishmael represents Socialism with his desire for equality.


 * Ahab**: Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of capital.

ESSAY:

In the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville, the author analyzes a variety of issues through the story of the obsessive Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the White Whale. One issue he looks at is economics in America. In the time the book was written, capitalism was allowing a few men to get rich at the expense of many. Melville showed his opinion of these "robber barons" through symbolism in the story, with the unflattering portrait of Ahab as capitalism and the character of Ishmael as socialism. Our video showed this interpretation through the use of several scenes from the novel.

The first scene shows how Ishmael represents socialism. In his first speech, he focuses on going to sea as a common sailor, instead of aiming for a higher ranking. A major aspect of socialism is equality among men. So, Ishmael exemplifies the ideals of socialism through his lack of desire for command or high status. He prefers the life of a sailor, equal with his shipmates.

The next scene shows how the Pequod is operated. Ishmael has a short conversation with the owners of the ship about becoming a crew member. The ship’s owners, Peleg and Bildad, do not exercise very much command over the ship that they finance. Instead, the crew men run the ship and each gain a fairly equal amount for their duties. In this way, the ship is also under a kind of socialism.

The following scene is a very important scene. In this scene, Captain Ahab changes the socialism of the ship into capitalism. He calls all the crew members on deck to tell them that their objective is to chase Moby Dick and kill him, instead of hunting as many whales as possible. The best option of the Pequod would be to hunt enough whales to bring profit to the entire crew. Ahab is the only one who gains profit from killing Moby Dick. This individual pursuit of gain is a notable feature of a capitalist economy. For the crew, chasing Moby Dick is a waste of time; for Ahab, it contains a great spiritual profit. However, Ahab also introduces a spirit of competition on board the ship by offering a Spanish doubloon to whoever first spots Moby Dick. Competition is another important aspect of a free market economy.

In the next scene, Ahab again shows his singular interest in personal profit. Starbuck tells him that the oil in the hold is leaking, but Ahab responds that they must continue to chase Moby Dick. The leaking oil is decreasing the profit for the entire crew, but again Ahab chooses to continue for the benefit of his own soul. Ahab shows his interest in his own individual gain at the expense of the crew.

The ship finally catches up with Moby Dick in the last scene. A furious battle ensues in which the entire crew perishes, leaving only Ishmael, the symbol of socialism. Ahab’s capitalism brings the entire crew to their doom because there is only interest in the profit of one person instead of everybody. Melville was writing of what he believed would be the fate of capitalist America. As he wrote it, the system would eventually crumble under its own imperfections, with only socialism remaining to carry on as the dominant system.