Summary:
The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, is a novel about a massive hurricane that hits the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts on the morning of October 30th, 1991. It shows the comparison between the waves of the storm and shroud of the sea, the destruction the storm caused and collapse mentioned in Moby Dick, and the changing of the world because of the storm's effects and of the sea continuing on as it had in the past.
The Perfect Storm
All collapsed, and the great shroud
Of the sea rolled on as it had
Five thousand years ago.
-Herman Melville, Moby Dick
The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, is a novel about a massive hurricane that hits the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts on the morning of October 30th, 1991. The quotation from Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is appropriate for a situation such as this, due to the waves, the destruction the storm caused, and the changing of the world because of the storm's effects.
First of all, the passage from the Perfect Storm first noted that, "The only sign that something is amiss is along the coast, where huge grey swells start to roll in that can be heard miles away." The "Shroud of the sea" can be viewed as the huge swells that are forming. "On the satellite photos, moist air flowing into the low looks like a swirl of cream in a cup of black coffee." The swirls on the satellite radar relate to the "great shroud" in the quotation by Herman Melville, which sweeps over and causes the "collapse." The shroud can symbolize death and destruction, and the cream in a cup of black coffee represents this, by swirling and spreading and, inevitably, changing the color of the coffee.
Secondly, the storm causes things to occur that would not normally occur. From the passage, a man named Bob Brown says, "The only light I can shed on the severity of the storm is that until then we had never-ever-had a lobster trap move offshore." This shows that the storm is becoming destructive. The excerpt from Moby Dick, which says "All collapsed," is emphasized by the passage from the Perfect Storm, which states, "Houses are washed out to sea in Gloucester, Swampscott and Cape Cod." The storm continues on as if nothing had happened, just like told in Moby Dick, about the Great Flood, when "the great shroud of the sea rolled on, just as it had five thousand years ago." This is a way in which the storm can be seen taking a destructive path.
Finally, the water is building up due to the storm. The destruction is foreseen when the passage reads the "only sign that something is amiss is along the coast, where huge grey swells start to roll in that can be heard miles away." The "Shroud of the sea" is a representation of the huge swells that are forming. In Boston, "A Delta Airlines pilot at Logan is surprised to see spray from breaking waves top the two-hundred-foot cranes...just sitting on the runway, his airspeed indicator clocks eighty miles an hour." This could indicate the "shroud of the sea" caused everything to collapse, and yet it just continued on.
In conclusion, the quotation from Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is appropriate for this excerpt of the Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger. It shows the comparison between the waves of the storm and shroud of the sea, the destruction the storm caused and collapse mentioned in Moby Dick, and the changing of the world because of the storm's effects and of the sea continuing on as it had in the past.
This is the complete article, containing 523 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
