Genre
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville

Moby-Dick: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

Moby-Dick is a novel that evades categorization. Just as it employs a variety of different styles and tones, Moby-Dick also falls within a number of genres. Firstly, it can be categorized as an adventure novel, with its setting upon the high seas and central chase of the great White Whale filling the novel with the kind of action and drama that typify this genre. Its great length and scope may also qualify it as an epic, with this categorization placing Moby-Dick in appropriate lineage with works such as The Odyssey, which also details the adventures and tragedies of life at sea. In a similar vein, Moby-Dick may also be categorized as a quest novel, with the plot dictated by Ahab’s central quest to enact revenge on Moby Dick.