Literature/Folklore

One way that sharks are depicted in literature and folklore is in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Sharks are the focus of one particular chapter in this novel. In this chapter, the crewmen are killing a shiver of sharks because they are attempting to eat the sperm whale flesh. The incorporation of sharks in this context says a lot about how sharks are viewed in society. According to this context, Melville describes sharks as hungry, man-eating creatures. The language Melville uses to depict sharks as the villain because they are in the way of the crewmen’s work.  The violence that is also depicted in this chapter is very gory, an indication that sharks are willing to do anything to get what they want. Sharks were probably chosen for this particular scene over other species because of how they were viewed at the time. Moby-Dick is a historical pieceof literature that has been around since 1851. The representation of sharks in this chapter brings the idea that sharks were already viewed as evil, man-eating villains of the sea.