Date of Award

1982

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English

Abstract

Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity8s Rainbow are quest- and question-filled novels, and much of the questing and exploration by characters in each pivots around the whale and the Rocket. These / quests are the expression of a desire to find patterns and order in the worlds of the novels and to shape those worlds as they shape the quests. The first three chapters of this essay will discuss various characters' scientific and religious exploration and quests for identity in this context, and as they relate to the whale and the Rocket. The fourth -chapter will discuss the narrative form and construction of the two novels, since novels themselves are attempts to pattern and organize experience. Because the worlds of Moby Dick and Gravity's Rainbow are so complex and multifarious, the narrators are as compelled as their characters are to try to understand and order them. The forms of the two novels are open and flexible, admitting that a rigid structure would not permit the richness and dynamism that so permeate their worlds. It is this openness and narrative questioning which also includes the reader in the quests for understanding. The overarching views of the two works are based on a realization that rigid structure cannot be imposed on a living world, and that enduring views are instead flexible and constantly changing, Both novels include us as readers in their worlds, and open into our world. In this way, we are involved in the interpretation going on in their worlds and forms, and they give us the tools for and the task of continuing the questioning in a productive way after we have finished reading them.

Rights Statement

All rights reserved. This copy is provided to the Kenyon Community solely for individual academic use. For any other use, please contact the copyright holder for permission.

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