Frank’s Reading Material
Despite his violent tendencies and tough man persona, The Punisher reveals that Frank Castle is a big reader, and the early episodes show him cosying up in bed, lost in a couple of good books (no, really). He borrows the novels from his old pal Curtis (more on him in a moment) and while it’s supposed to be a way to keep his mind off the past, it doesn’t work.
The two novels we see him reading aren’t randomly chosen and clearly echo Frank’s own situation. First of all, he digs into Moby Dick, the classic nautical novel by Herman Melville. Though connecting the Punisher to a tale about a captain on the hunt for a whale sounds like a bit of a stretch on the surface, the two share similar themes. Ahab becomes obsessed with his pursuit of the titular sea creature to his own detriment. Much like how Frank’s crusade against criminals is slowly destroying his soul.
The importance of Frank’s second choice of reading material is a lot more obvious. The book is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Crack-Up, a collection of personal essays reflecting a dark time in the writer’s life. The main essay begins with the line: “Of course all life is a process of breaking down,” for example. This fits with Frank’s own life spiraling down the drain once his family is murdered.
Elsewhere, in a flashback sequence to his time in Kandahar, Frank references “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” a poem by Alfred Tennyson about the tragedy of soldiers having to following orders they know will get them killed.
