Achnowledgements
My special thanks go to Zhou Xue for her consent to be my supervisor, which is a great encouragement to me, for her insightful advice and above all careful scrutiny of both the outline and the draft in materializing the present thesis.
I also wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to teacher Ma Yan whose lectures enhance my interest in American literature as well as widened my academic view, to Mr. Li Wenjun and Miss Zhang Yuanyuan, whose valuable
suggestions, warm encouragement and great patience in the critical reading of my thesis.
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also would
like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the respectable professors and friends that have taught and helped me in the course of my under graduate study.
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Abstract
Melville is best known for his novel Moby Dick. Critics have agreed it is one of the world's greatest symbolic novels. It is an encyclopedia, covers history, philosophy, religion, etc, in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry. Moby Dick is a charming work, changeful styles, rich themes and the most important is the successful use of the symbolism. Not only images are symbolic, but also the description of the details and scenes are endowed rich symbolic meanings.
The present thesis will explore the symbolisms of this novel in order to help further understand the symbolic meaning of different images.
Key words: Moby Dick，symbolic meaning，Melville
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摘 要
《白鲸》是美国作家赫尔曼麦尔维尔的代表作，是世界上最有象征意义的小说之一.它是一部关于历史，哲学，宗教以及捕鲸业的百科全书。白鲸是一部独具魅力的作品，小说的风格多变，主题多解，最主要的是作者成功运用了象征主义。除了作者塑造的各类形象均有象征意义外，小说对景物、细节的描写也具有极其丰富的象征、暗示意义。
本文对小说中的象征逐一进行了探究性的分析，旨在进一步了解各类形象的象征意义。
关键词：《白鲸》，象征意义，麦尔维尔
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