Talk:Redburn

'Brutal Sailors' 'Seedier Areas of Liverpool' 'Hardships of a Sailors life'?

Melvilles Redburn depicts a well bred young American 'Sallying Forth' with all the challenges of Youth into the Workaday World. But it is difficult to read the Book and think of Melville as suffering indignity heaped on indignity. As a young American, Melville lived well in comparison to most English people at that time. His chief 'tormentor' was the sarcastic Jackson, who took pleasure in arranging humiliating situations for the young New Yorker, such as when he goaded Melville into paying his compliments to the Captain. That Melville was shocked by his voyage to Liverpool is without doubt, but his worst experiences are not recorded in Redburn. One incident that was to forever haunt Melville was when he found a young Irish Mother dieing in the street. The teenage New Yorker ran to a Liverpool Policeman and told him of the Irish Mother with her baby starving and death. The Policeman thought the young American a real eccentric for being concerned about such a vagrant and gave no help. For a day or two Melville carried cups of water and what food he could to the sad woman. One day when he called to help her he found a pile of Quicklime piled in a heap over the dead body of the woman and her baby.Johnwrd (talk) 01:45, 30 June 2009 (UTC)