Moby Dick, the White Whale

An interpretation

Points to ponder

• 1. The five conflicts: man - man, God, society, nature, and himself

• 2. The big white whale ( an archetype, a brother, a super-natural power, a teacher, a destroyer of human will and determination)

• 3. Ahab ( a sea captain, a leader, a tragic figure)• 4. Ishmael ( a wanderer, a fortune teller, a recorder

and observer of human tragedy)• 5. The beauty of human tragedy--- any human hero is

an Ahab, and any great human act is, to some extent. tragic.

Man and water

Our powerful brother created by God one day older than us

Melville’s day

The conflict between the brothers

We will be punished if we have killed our brother

Bro

ther killin

g

bro

ther

Ahab in the novel

Ahab in the movie

Ishmael and his mother

Ishmael and his mother

Jesus Christ and his mother

Cultural products of Moby Dick by H. Melville

The super-natural powerGodThe human fateThe testing stone The unknown difficulties

To be, or not to be, that’s a question