How to Read Moby Dick

a guide for first-time readers

	William Charles Bynum captures the concept of passion and obsession that runs deeply in our darkly heroic tradition exemplified by Ahab. Notice his use of numbers. Recall Hawthorne's use of 3 and 7 in Scarlet Letter?
	Robinson's Ahab, part of a group of illustrations for a 1943 book-club edition of Moby Dick, captures the novel's intensity, the elemental drivenness of this character. from University of Michigan web site
	Ahab's face fragments along the line of a scar that frequently appears in Wilson's representations of the mariner. from University of Michigan web site.
	Richard Ellis, a founding member of the Save the Whale movement, imagines Moby-Dick not as the solitary force Melville brooded over, but as a wounded member of the community of whales. from University of Michigan web site
	Johah and the Whale Father Mapple's sermon recounts the story of Jonah and the Whale. When you have finished the book, go back to the sermon and reread it. How is it analogous to Ishmael's journey? Also, as depicted by this artist, how might this drawing be associated with Plato's analogy of the cave? from Columbia University web site
	from University of Michigan web site