TERM PAPER IDEAS

• GENERAL TOPICS

1. Moby-Dick-the whale as fact, the whale as myth

2. The pursuit of control in Moby-Dick

3. The pursuit of knowledge in Moby-Dick

4. Whales as symbols of the unknown

5. Moby-Dick's ending: happy or tragic?

6. The world according to Ahab

7. The world according to Ishmaele

• CHARACTER ANALYSIS

1. Ahab as Tragic Hero

2. "My topmost greatness lies in my topmost grief"- Ahab's final triumph

3. Ahab as a symbol of America

4. Fedallah and Ahab, a comparison

5. The Pequod's three mates

6. Father Mapple: Saint or charlatan?

7. A bosom friendship: Ishmael and Queequeg

8. Starbuck-the failure of goodness?

9. Moby-Dick's prophets

10. Pip's madness

• LITERARY TECHNIQUE

1. Images of the ocean in Moby-Dick

2. The purpose of the Pequod's gams

3. Melville's metaphors

4. Melville's use of humor

5. "The pasteboard mask"- symbolism in Moby-Dick

6. Images of fire and lightning in Moby-Dick

7. Point of view in Moby-Dick

8. Ahab's omens

9. Classical allusions in Moby-Dick

10. The meaning of the Town-Ho's story

11. Mapple's sermon compared to Fleece's sermon

12. The Pequod as microcosm

13. The meaning of the doubloon

14. Images of looms and weaving in Moby-Dick

15. The coffin as a symbol of life and death

• SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Melville's attitude toward religion

2. The vision of brotherhood in Moby-Dick

3. Capitalism and business in Moby-Dick

4. Can there ever be a shark well-governed?

5. The Pequod as a symbol of America

6. Fast-fish and loose-fish-the limits of law

• COMPARISONS WITH OTHER WORKS

1. Moby-Dick and Book of Job

2. Moby-Dick and the Book of Jonah

3. Moby-Dick and Melville's earlier novels of the sea: Typee, Omoo, White-Jacket or Redburn

4. Ishmael and Billy Budd

5. Moby-Dick and Shakespeare