Herman Melville

     In the mid-1830's Herman Melville started writing poetry, short stories, and essays and studying literature at the Albany Classical school. He then later left the school for a teaching job in Massachusetts, but eventually left Massachusetts too and went to Lansingburgh and enrolled at the Lansingburgh Academy to study 'surveying' for a chance to be employed in the Erie Canal project. Melville did not receive the position, so instead, he was sent on a merchant ship, St. Lawrence, to work as a crew member. This is where the experience begins and is the beginning of his inspiration to writing Moby Dick. His second voyage was on a whaling ship, where he was later capture by cannibals on his journey.
     So in other words, Moby Dick was Melville's life story and a journal of his experience on his voyages out at sea. It made perfect sense of how Moby Dick could somewhat be based on Melville's personal experience since his style of writing expresses much detail and vivid descriptions. Melville also has a gift for the usage of rhetoric devices. He could take two different elements and contrast them in an eloquent metaphor. His rhetoric skills are admirable and at times give the text depth, but he tends to linger on and on, providing pointless knowledge throughout most of his work.