Comparing Melvilles Moby Dick as a Mans Story and Naslunds Novel, Ah

Comparing Melvilles Moby Dick as a Mans score and Naslunds Novel, Ahabs wife as a Womans Story Throughout my reading of Moby Dick and Ahabs Wife, I was disturbed by the fact that the most tempting way to situate the two novels in a birth was to categorize them as male and female. Moby Dick was, of course, the mans story and Ahabs Wife was its womanly counterpart. This comparison makes sense when you consider the gender of the authors, Melville and Naslund, the gender of their respective narrators, Ishmael and Una, and the experiences pictured throughout the texts. Many readers argue, There are no female characters in Moby Dick- how could it be anything but a mans story? In that context, it is easy to position Ahabs Wife at the opposite end of the literary spectrum because the novel is told solely from a feminine perspective. Viewing the texts in this way indicates that our conceptions of gender have not changed practically since the days of Adam and Eve. In that story the man, Ad am, came first and provided the foundation for humankind. Eve was an afterthought, borne from a single rib. The rib that became Una can be found in Moby Dick- a single reference to Ahabs spouse back in Nantucket. Adam and Eve represent a clear division between male and female that realised the gender binary we now impose on these two texts. I find this dichotomy troubling and ultimately inadequate for several reasons. First of all, I dont agree with the spectrum concept that places maleness on one side and femaleness on the other, then locates Moby Dick and Ahabs Wife at these opposite poles. However, this formula exists in almost every field of study. The scientific term for the differences between males and females of a s... ...the finishing to posterity. (663) Just as Melville left room for Naslund, she has opened the door for more(prenominal) stories to emerge from Moby Dick and more towers to be constructed. Sources Cited Chase, Cheryl. Hermaphrodites With Attitude Mapping t he Emergence of Intersex Political Action. from Questions of sexual practice/Engendering Questions, 130-141Garber, Marjorie. Spare Parts The Surgical Construction of Gender from Questions of Gender/Engendering Questions, 361-368 Hemmeter, Gail. Ambiguous Sexes from Questions of Gender/Engendering Questions, 96-118 Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2002.Naslund, Sena Jeter. Ahabs Wife. New York William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1999. Slaughenhoupt, Bruce L. Diagnostic Evaluation and Management of the Child With Ambiguous Genitalia. KMA Journal 95 (1997) 135-141.