Chasing American Originality: Literary Continuity and Artistic Survival in Moby-Dick

Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick, or, The Whale during the nineteenth century American Renaissance when America sought a distinct, identifiable culture for the new west apart from European tradition in the East. In 1839, eleven years before the publication of Moby-Dick, John L. O’Sullivan published an article in the Democratic Review prophesizing America as “The Great Nation of Futurity.” O’Sullivan’s vision for America stretched beyond political destiny into the realm of culture. To further demonstrate America’s superiority as a nation, O’Sullivan argued the nation’s literature must reflect America’s democracy and nation while also rejecting any imitation of foreign cultural tradition. Melville’s fifth novel serves as an allegorical response to O’Sullivan’s political rhetoric. Often called the great American novel, Moby-Dick ironically represents the inherent danger in nationalizing art for the sake of profit or pride, and through Ishmael, Melville affirms artistic survival requires separation from extreme American individualism. Through Melville’s creative allegory, he demonstrates literary continuity to the past must be upheld for the culture to survive. However, O’Sullivan’s desire for American originality neglects the natural continuity in creativity. As an author reads, sparks of inspiration provoke thought, and with those thoughts, the author writes. In summation, Moby-Dick reveals artistic survival within a democracy requires an author willing to establish boundaries to national belonging. Furthermore, the author must resist the lure of success and fame by writing the truth, rather than chasing a mythic, political ideal.