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.2 The Moral in Individualism 14

Part Ⅵ  Conclusion 15

References 16

Acknowledgements 17

The Comparison of Individualism from “Moby Dick” and “The Old Man and the Sea”

Part I Introduction

“Moby Dick” and “The Old Man and the Sea”, both of whose themes are about individualism, both ends in tragedy. But apparently, their themes are different in essence. Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick makes him very selfish. He can only think about his revenge. This makes him blind to the dangers involved for his crew and his family. However, “The Old Man and the Sea” focuses on the survival of humanity and the conflict of destiny and environment. At last, the big fish ended up being eaten by the shark, and the old man was finally dragged home by the fish which only had a bare skeleton. It is obvious that the old man is no victory. But with the words of the old man in the novel: “A person is not born must be defeated” and “people do can be destroyed, but can not be defeated”.

Ahab also failed, however, his tragedies stemmed largely from the extreme self-expansion; his soul was too independent and therefore difficult to be saved. This is a self-centered model, differing from which San Diego shows to us. Individualism is a very complex phenomenon; we cannot evaluate this phenomenon in a simplified way. Individualism has both positive significance and a negative meaning. It cannot be denied that both Ahab and San Diego, their will and the pursuit both reflect the basic values and ideals of individualism (High, Peter B, 1986). However, in the former case, individualism is a self-centered personality of autism, which means contempt of others, our community and all the significance of life, acting as a negative, tyranny and totalitarianism; while, in the latter case, the spirit of individualism is cherished for life, determined and conscious, is positive and human nature.

Part II Individualism

In the following part, the author will discuss the historical evolution of the spirit of individualism and the concepts of individualism, in order to tell people something about individualism.

2.1 The Historical Evolution of the Spirit of Individualism

As an old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” A culture can not be formed overnight. Throughout the history of the United States, it is not difficult to find that individualism had been brought to this land since the first settlers arrived.

2.1.1 The Origin of Individualism in the Early History

In the United States, individualism can be traced back to its early history, in the year of 1776, prior to the war of independence. With the rise of contradictions as taxes , the colonial people thought that British Parliament had no right to interfere in any internal affairs of the colonized people, so the idea of breaking up with the United Kingdom came up, and it finally came to reality when Franklin, Jefferson, who drafted the Declaration of Independence solemnly declared to the world: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”(Dong Xiaochuan, 2006)  

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