Jasmine Pena January 31, 2013 English 465 Dr.

Gross

Totalitarianism What is Totalitarianism? It is a type of government that controls all aspects of life in a country: political, economic, social, and cultural. Usually, one person or one party has complete control over the people. Some examples are Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, Mao Zedong and Chinese Communism, Francisco Franco and Francoist Spain, Joseph Stalin and his Stalinist Soviet Union, and Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism. The Origins The term totalitarianism originated in the 1920s. In 1923, Benito Mussolini dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1945 was associated with the term when he used Fascist ambitions to monopolize power and to transform Italian society through the creation of a new political religion (Totalitarianism). In a speech he gave in 1925 he stated: Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state (Henrie). Its Characteristics There are specific features that define what a totalitarian government is. The first is that there can only be one political party. Other parties are either controlled or removed. The second is that all forms of media and communication -- for example, propaganda for the political party are controlled by the government. This way, only the ideas of the party are heard, to the interest of the party and what

they want the people to know. The third feature is that all forms of weapons are under control by the government, this way preventing riots, revolutions or uproars. The fourth is having control over the economy. This allows the government to stay in control and in check with the people, making the people feel that they need the government in order to live. The last feature is that the government uses terror, therefore imposing fear on the people in order to prevent any threats over the ruling of the country (Government). Moby Dick and Totalitarianism In Moby Dick, totalitarianism is shown through the Pequod and its captain, Ahab. Ahab in the book shows a totalitarian will to have the power. He has an obsession with Moby Dick that makes him stubborn, selfish, vengeful, and destructive. However, we also see the more humane and tortured side of Ahab that shows more of his background and why he is how he is. In Visionary Compacts, Pease talks about the methods of persuasion Ahab uses with his crew, giving him totalitarian characteristics. He uses Chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, to show he has a need for absolute power over the crew especially during the argument between Starbuck and Ahab. Starbuck only sees the whale as a profit, while Ahab sees the whale as a wall that needs to be taken down (Pease 235-6). Ahab wants to dominate Starbuck, since he seems to be the only one that doesnt go with the change of plans for the Pequod. In this scene, Melville borrows language from Shakespeare to use with Ahab. When he talks to Starbuck and the crew, he talks to them in a language that immediately encloses him in a theatrical frame giving him unapproachable cultural power In the end, Ahab gives in to Starbuck, which shows how much control and authority he has over the crew (Pease 240). We also see some Emerson influences in Ahab, with the struggle that he goes through not only inside his mind, but also the lives of the crew.

"The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some men feel eating in them... all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified in Moby Dick" (Melville 154).

This is also seen in Mariners, Renegades, & Castaways, by C.L.R. James. James shows us the more vulnerable side of Ahab, explaining how it was that Melville created him as a totalitarian type. He is a man that sees Moby Dick as a problem and an obstacle in his life. He believes that by killing Moby Dick, his troubles will go away (James 6). When reading the article and the passages of the book it talks about, one can tell that Ahab isnt like other men. Hes more solitary and confined to himself. James explains his purpose concerning only two things: 1. Science, the management of things; and 2. Politics, the management of men. Even in Chapter 46, his calls the crew a manufactured man (Melville 178). Melville pursues the method that he has laid down from the start in his analysis of Ahab. He is by nature a dictatorial personality. But that has not made him a dictator. It is the fact that he has been in command so long, has learned the usages of command at sea which all tend toward creating a dictatorship. Give him now his purpose, and his outstanding ability, and you have the basis of what Melville calls the tremendous centralization of power (James 15-6).

Works Cited "Government Systems and Political Ideologies." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, 2008. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00540/totalitarianism.html>. Baehr, Peter. "Totalitarianism." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. 2005. Retrieved January 31, 2013 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3424300779.html Henrie, Mark C. "The Home of American Intellectual Conservatism at First Principles." First Principles. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 23 Dec. 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=974>. James, C. L.R. Mariners, Renegades & Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1952. PDF. Melville, Herman, Harrison Hayford, and Hershel Parker. Moby-Dick: An Authoritative Text. New York: W.W. Norton, 1967. Print. Pease, Donald E. Visionary Compacts. N.p.: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. PDF.