7/31/2019 Sea Motif in the 19th Century American Literature
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Sea motif in the 19th century American literature
Among the greatest subliminal motifs of the 19th century American literature stands
the sea motifs, which at those times had been used a lot and was really appreciated.The works that had the sea as a base of them, were also named “Sea literature” and
the most common used elements representing it were the sea, the sailor and the
ship.
The sea was seen as a symbol of an adventure and was almost always personified,
while the ship represented the life and the sailor the nature of man itself. These three
elements together were contributing in the process of finally creating tales of
romance and courage and also the initiation of the individual by getting to better
understand life and its multiple hidden secrets.
Mythic notions of the sea were developed by Victorians, including its symbolic
association with Christian redemption and spiritual rebirth and the assigning of
female qualities to the water, based on its mystery, emotion and sense of
restlessness.
The sea motif is believed to appeared from the beginning of the oral traditions of
Native Americans who recited stories of the common experiences of whaling and
fishing and they attributed strong worshipping to the water because of the belief that
the land was created from great waters.
Americans also seen the sea as a place of freedom and soul-searching for the
individual and it was largely romanticized by them and considered a sort of Heaven
far from the evils and distractions of society, but in reality sailors were not prepared
for the isolated life that the water was proposing them and the majority had only one
trip an then never went back again.
The American sea fiction was born during the first half of the 19th century when the
romantic view of the sea prevailed.
Herman Melville’s great American Novel, “Moby Dick”, also known as “The Whale”,
was first published in 1851 and it is considered to be one of the most important
works of the literature world. The on-water life presented in Melville’s novel is one
that triggers the feeling of excitement and the idea of great adventures, but in reality,
that life is monotonous, dirty and even brutal.
Starting with the middle of the 19th century and going through the 20th century, the
sea fiction reflected several significant changes in the American social and cultural
landscape as the ending of using the sailing ships, the closing of the Western frontier
and the publication of Charles Darwin’s controversial “On the origin of species” in
1859. Sea literature was most profoundly affected by this latter development with theattention turned towards the investigation of the biological origins of man and
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attempting to resolve the conflict between the theme of brotherhood among seaman
and the question of survival of the fittest.
In abandoning the romantic notions of a coming to terms between man and the
natural power of the sea, the late 19th century writers of sea fiction took the position
that man was no match for the powerful, hostile and unfeeling natural environment,
so during this realist-naturalist period, writers often portrayed in their works the
human as helpless in front of the sea, the nature, chance or fate being the only ways
for survival.
Themes in American literature changed after the writing of “Moby Dick”, as the focus
shifted from the recounting adventures at sea to the contemplation of questions of
consciousness as Walt Whitman, in his sequence of poems named “Sea-drift”,
examined the theme of individual identity.