Mellville And Darwin's Writings On The Galapagos Islands

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terms. An important part of Mellville's style
is that the he never directly describes the islands. "Take five-and-twenty heaps
of cinders dumped here and there in an outside city lot" is how Mellville's
description of the Galapagos Islands begins. This reduces the Galapagos islands
from a large, nearly inconceivable place to objects of which most any reader
can create a mental picture. When Mellville describes the flora of the
Galapagos Islands, he compares it with drying "Syrian gourds," aching for water.
Mellville discusses the solitude of the Galapagos Islands in comparison with
Greenland, a familiar place of solitude, the clear water in terms of Lake Erie,
and the "azure ice" in terms of malachite. “They know not autumn” writes
Mellville, as if these “heaps of cinder” are conscious of anything at all. All
these segments of Mellvilles passage are illustrations of how Mellville creates
a personal relationship between the Island and the reader.
Darwin uses scientific and ...

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