4.2 Ambivalent Interpersonal Relationship in The Bear 10

4.2.1 Harmonious Relations between Isaac and Sam 10

4.2.2 Imparity in Society 11

5. The Relation between Human and Self in Ahab and Isaac 12

5.1 Ahab’s Alienation from Himself 12

5.2 Isaac’s Redemption of Himself 12

6. Conclusion 14

References 15

1. Introduction

Hunting has been the most important activity in the human’s life, helping human beings to survive under the cruel and the strict environment. Nature provides human essential resource of living, from food, water to shelter. With the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution and the development of the technology, the relationship between nature and human beings was changed. With the influence of the environment disruption, the theme of the confrontation between human and nature is widely presented in the literary works. More and more critics analyze the literary works from the perspective of ecocriticism.

Melville’s Moby Dick and Faulkner’s The Bear are famous animal novels，narrating two catching stories. The white whale and the bear are both mammals, one cruised in the South Pacific, and the other lived in a forest. In the authors’ description, both of them were invincible and represented as the symbol of nature, and it seemed that they had the incredible power of the gods. In Moby Dick, except for Captain Ahab, all the survivors who had met with the White Whale and even the sailors who had heard of its name had treated it as inviolable. In The Bear, the hunting activities were held almost every year, but in fact it was only to pay tribute to it. 

Captain Ahab chased Moby Dick with resentment for many years. Although he tried to release himself from hatred, he failed. Eventually he died with white whale in the ocean. Isaac’s awe and desire for nature made him find the true self in nature, and he also devoted his rest to the forest. Because of the different attitude toward nature, the endings of the two protagonists are not the same in these two books. There are also many similarities in theme and subject matter. The ending of the two heroes can also make us understand that the friendly relationship between human and nature is very important for human development.

1.1 Herman Melville and Moby Dick

Herman Melville, an American famous novelist, was born in 1819 and died in 1891. Moby Dick was one of his best-known works, which was published in 1851. After the decline of his family, he had been a sailor, which took a tremendous influence on his literary works, promoting the growth of the ecology idea. The real experience of sailing and whaling was the basis of Moby Dick.

Herman Melville was born in a rich and famous family in New York City in1819. He had a comfortable childhood and a good education. Unfortunately, his father’s business went down, and their life got even harder after his father’s death. When he was 15 years old, Melville dropped out of school and started working at a variety of jobs. At the age of twenty, he worked as a seaman and took the adventure on the ocean.

From 1839 to 1844, Melville was a whaler in a ship. After his return, he started his writing. In the summer of 1845, Melville completed his first book Typee. In his early stage, most of his novels are adventure story which was based on his own experiences, such as Omoo (1847), Mardi (1849), and White-Jacket (1850). Those works were prevalent and won the reputation and wealth for him. 

In 1847, after his marriage, Melville and his family lived in New York. With a quantity reading, influenced by Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Thomas Brown, Moby Dick was created in his more mature stage of writing. Moby Dick was published in 1851, but it was hard for people to accept and understand his idea. To earn for living, Melville wrote novels for money, such as Pierre (1852) and Billy Budd (1891). However, his works were not successful, and his reputation became worse and worse, as well as his life. 生态批评视角下《白鲸》与《熊》的比较研究(2):http://www.chuibin.com/yingyu/lunwen_206561.html