I think that the fact that not everyone is drawn to the same aspects of the novel is, in part, the beauty of the story. At the same time, the variety in form can be confusing to most. A story that is frustrating to follow can turn audiences away. In Shiela Post-Lauria’s article “‘Philosophy in Whales... Poetry in Blubber’: Mixed Form in Moby-Dick” she tells us that:
The metaphysical discussions, genre shifts, use of Shakespearean conventions, and mixture of facts and romance-typically considered Melville 's improvisations-also appear in "mixed form" narratives, a genre once popular but now largely forgotten. Through this heterogeneous form Melville links his work to a popular yet subversive trend within antebellum literary culture. Recovering these complexities of form during the period is essential to understanding Melville 's own intentions and method in his masterpiece. …show more content…
Initially, I enjoyed the imagery, the same reason I was drawn to “The Symphony”. Now I realize that it is more than that. I didn’t remember Bulkington, but Ishmael did. Usually I wouldn’t think that just a sentence was good enough. It is in the “six-inch chapter”(106), possibly the shortest of all, that revealed the most to me. “while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore? … so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee” (107),. Most would cast this chapter off because of it’s length, instead my head was sent spinning in so many directions. This is only a sentence, but these words are profound. From some of your first english classes you learn that alliteration is a figure of speech. Do we learn about patterns of three or figures of speech from people like Melville or were they taught those principles just like us? Nonetheless. “Wildest winds of heaven”, everything you can imagine. “Conspire”, i love the word conspire, “to cast her on the treacherous… shore”, everything you can imagine is working against him yet, he would rather die doing what he loves than to be stuck where he belongs. Ishmael decided to use this simple character with one entrance to remind us of to the idea of the land vs sea. A battle that he is facing himself. Ishmael honors Bulkington for his choice to continually be landless, mostly because,