Open-Ended Discussion Prompts for Moby-Dick

• Do you believe in God? Is God benevolent? (Not to make people answer these, but to frame the idea that however you personally think about them might impact your reading.)
• What is Melville’s relationship to Whiteness? Ishmael’s? Ahab’s? Yours?
• What is truth? What is real and what is not real? Can multiple things be true at the same time? Can something be real and imaginary?
• What is the relationship between words and ideas? What kind of problems do words cause when we try to communicate with each other?