How does melville indirectly characterize ahab in the opening paragraphs of the excerpt? how is this characterization consistent with romanticism, and how does it resemble some of hawthorne’s characterization from the scarlet letter? : !

One might wonder how Herman Melville was able to write a story such as Moby Dic so realistically. It is because he spent time on a whaling ship that sailed out of the same port from which Ahab's ship departs. The element of realism in this novel of adventure and obsession is born of personal experience.

On January 3, 1841, he sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, on the whaler Acushnet, which was bound for the Pacific Ocean..

no se

explanation:

no se

21 balloons is the story of professor william sherman's travels.

in 1883, he set off from san francisco for a balloon ride over the pacific and was found a month later floating with 21 balloons in the atlantic ocean. this seemed an astounding feat and everyone wanted to know what had happened.    

professor sherman was loyal, however, and said he would tell his tale first to the western american explorers club in san francisco, of which he was a member. this built up suspense for several chapters before he began to tell of the wonders of his adventures and the amazing island of krakatoa, an island which had just been blown up by a volcano.  

the residents of krakatoa are all millionaires who live under a "gourmet government" of their own devising. we get to see all the incredible adventures that creative people with unlimited resources would create according to the author.