Moby-Dick Themes

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Hey, the phrase "white whale" entered the lexicon as "something you obsess over until it destroys you" because of Moby-Dick. This isn't just a book abo...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) We don't even have to look at this one symbolically: this is quite literally a book about a dude who goes out into the natural world to kill animals. A...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Moby-Dick was way ahead of its time with respect to its views on religion. The novel shows equal respect for a wide variety of religious traditions and...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) The first thing the reader notices about race in Moby-Dick is the diversity of the cast of characters, which includes among its principals a South Sea...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) The Pequod is the ship that launched a thousand jokes... jokes about dudes getting chummy while they're squeezing oozing gobs of spermaceti. Seriously....

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Moby-Dick is a novel that never lets you forget that you’re reading a novel or that the story you’re hearing has been filtered through the perspect...

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Some novels might be subtle about issues of fate vs. chance, but subtlety isn't really Moby-Dick's thing. This book thrusts questions of free will vs....

(Click the themes infographic to download.) Insanity, in Moby-Dick, means having a single-minded obsession over one thing or being completely possessed by one overpowering desire... like the desi...