Focus+Questions-+Capitalism+and+Socialism

1. **What is capitalism?**

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately owned, and capital is invested in the production. Capitalism’s most known characteristic is that the economic system is free and the government has barely any or no control over economic activities.

2. **What is socialism?**

Socialism is the idea that people, either directly or through government should be able to own the factors of production and distribution.

3. **Define utopia, especially as envisioned and "practiced" in the 18th and 19th centuries.**

Utopia in the late 18th and 19th century was based on economics. Utopian ideas (ideas that imagined or envisioned an “ideal civilization” that to some seemed attainable in the future) rose in the early 19th century due to the rising of commercialism and capitalism. The utopian ideas of this time period were: there should be equal distribution of goods, people should only have to do work they enjoy and that is good for the people or community and that there should be “total abolition of money,” in the end allowing people time to worry about arts and sciences.

4. **Describe the economic situation in the United States during the time period in which the novel was being written.**

The economic situation during the time period of the late 1800s, when Moby Dick was being written, was when the Industrial Revolution was occurring. Throughout this revolution many new things were being introduced like the introduction of canals, steam ships, and railways. Industries were beginning to be built all around the world. Economies were rising during this time and companies were growing to an extent that many people could have ever imagined. The whaling industry throughout the 1800s was a big part of the economy, oil from the whales was used all around the world for light and other such necessities.

5. **What economic policies would be most closely linked to the two major philosophical movements of the early to mid 1800's, romanticism and transcendentalism?**

The whaling industry viewed as an economic policy could be closely linked to the philosophical movement of transcendentalism because this philosophy and it’s philosophers believed that reality and truth could only exist in the spirit and in order to learn the “supreme truth” of the world people would need more than just reason. Transcendentalists believed that in combining mental and manual work would in the end help the soul of the person. In whaling people seemed to do that they had to worked very hard in thinking out their strategies and also with their bodies and getting strong enough to be on a ship.

6. **What elements of capitalism are present in the novel? (Characters, events, symbols, etc.)**

Capitalism in Moby Dick would be best represented by Ahab who seems to do whatever pleases him without the consent of the owners of the Pequod. Ahab is the captain of the ship but not the owner, he has taken the role of captain to pursue his own mission throughout the novel while others are expecting to catch whales and make money, Ahab is plotting revenge. There seems to be no one to object to Ahab’s ideas and make him realize what he is doing is wrong, this character shows capitalism in Moby Dick because he has no governor nor ruler to tell him that what he is doing is wrong and unjust.

7. **What elements of socialism are present in the novel? (Characters, events, symbols, etc.)**

Socialism in the novel is represented by the crew because through the economic system of whaling is were they will each recieve their own "means of production." The government being the captains of the ship chose how much each crew memeber will make money depending on the total profit of the voyage.

8. **What elements of romanticism are present in the novel? (Characters, event, symbols, etc.)**

Romanticism Era took place around the 1820s until the 1860s. It was an era that affected literature because it encouraged the expression of emotions like horror and a great awe in confronting the unimagineable. Romanticism is symbolized by Captain Ahab, who throughout the novel expresse his hatred towards Moby Dick. Also, Ahab like romanticism encouraged, was determined to battle the great white whale who was the most ferocious beast in the ocean.

9. **What elements of transcendentalism are present in the novel? (Character, events, symbols, etc.)**

Ishmael represents transcendentalism in the novel or the theory of it because he is weak man physically and ignorant to the whaling industry but he is looking for an enrichment of the soul, as he says that he is getting tires of the people and being on land. He decides to become a sailor and in doing this he proves that the purifying of the soul like many transcendentalists believed would be achieved through both manual and mental labor.

10. **Why is whaling a particularly appropriate industry for Melville to choose as part of an exploration of US economic policy?**

Whaling is and excellent industry for Melville to use as part of the exploration of the US because like whaling the US was getting itself into a business that was unknown and every stage was completely new. In whaling no one ever knows when the next whale would show up, in 5 minutes or in 3 days and Melville tries to interpret that into his novel of the US's economic policy because the US was climbing onto vast and unknown territory like a ship would onto the ocean.

11. **What seems to be Melvilles's commentary on the United States and its economic policies and future?**

Melvilled seems to believe that like the Pequod the United States was filled with all different kinds of people who were being led into a troublesome situation. Melville seems to believe that the US will fail and be destroyed in searching for such an ambitious goal yet Melville knows that there will eventually be one survivor who can go on and tell the story like Ishmael. Melville tries to send his message through his novel by using a great amount of symbolism.