Fleece’s Payback
In chapter 64, we read about Stubb’s whale supper and about how most whalemen do not enjoy whale meat. I think this is reasonable because on a humane level, many people may not want to eat the animal that they just brutally murdered. What I found ironic was that Stubb dines on the whale by the light of whale oil. This scene felt very unsettling and reminded me, for some odd reason, of cannibalism. What I also found interesting in this chapter was that Stubb demanded that Fleece order the sharks to stop eating the whale flesh. Fleece actually delivered a sermon, telling the sharks to be more civilized. It seemed as though Fleece was inadvertently attempting to take his anger for Stubb out on the sharks by admonishing them. I found this situation to be quite humorous; slaves can often passively resist their masters and poke fun at them in ways one could not even conceive of.