Essays on Moby Dick

Is set when Wall Street was becoming a financial hub of the United States. This transformation impacted many at the time, there was no minimum wage, few child labor laws, few unions, and few protections against discrimination. The American workplace changed dramatically, becoming a dangerous and unsafe environment. With the Industrial Revolution changing the workplace rapidly and living conditions quickly deteriorating, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” offers a look into the life of many working-class citizens during the 19th century. Herman Melville…...

Vonnegut is referencing Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, whose narrator is also a central protagonist and character, but both fail to reveal much information about themselves. In the Book of Jonah, Jonah is trapped in a whale’s belly for several days like in Moby Dick. Bokononism represents religion in the real world. Its deliberately absurd contradictions are meant to question the purpose of religion in modern society and whether religion can still be good even if its principles are based on…...