Melville’s primary focus in his classic novel Moby Dick is the evil of mankind, a point of focus consistent with his anti-Transcendental philosophical alignment. In Moby Dick, Melville shows man’s evil toward fellow man and nature through his thoroughly-developed plot and characters, and in the components of the thematic layer underlying almost every character’s personal motives. Analysis of Melville’s own motives help to clarify the author’s reasoning behind each of the examples of man’s evil in his novel. In order to fully understand his anti-Transcendental belief, it is necessary to first comprehend the origin of anti-Transcendentali