Most of us can agree that this is a tough chapter to talk about. Obviously, times were different back then, and because it did happen, it’s still worth talking about, even if it may be tough to ingest. Setting aside race, these two individuals (Stubb and Fleece) are the product of their upbringing. Stubb in this scene is viewed as a pompous god fearing dick, hold the Moby, and Fleece, and an elder man who has accepted his fate that his life is just a ticking clock, for it to strike 12 and “some pressed angel will come and fetch him.” There is some beauty in it when Fleece says, “he himself won’t go nowhere,” because he himself is deserving of more. Though he himself may have been dealt a terrible hand, he has accepted that and is patiently waiting for a halo to defy gravity about his head.

This chapter is reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn, especially in the dialect of the black cook, which is also featured in Huck Finn, appearing in both white and black characters. I was reading online about how this language could dehumanize those of a certain race, especially with one where, at that time, they were mostly uneducated. I say uneducated, not intelligent, because there’s a huge difference. My father doesn’t have a high school diploma, and some of his skill sets are far below average compared to those of his peers. Still, what he lacks, he makes up for in blue-collar work, such as construction, and exact measurements. He can look at something and know the precise measurement of fiberglass insulation piping offhand. Additionally, he can mathematically add fractions without missing a beat. I feel that even though Fleece may not be educated in the sense of a white gentleman, particularly as seen in Stubb, he has still lived and seen a world that doesn’t make him less than.

“Don’t be tearin’ de blubber out your neighbours mout, I say.” On page 321, we see Fleece, for lack of a better word, impart this moral lesson on helping one’s neighbor. It bears a striking similarity to the America we live in today, especially in terms of white privilege. To use an analogy, if there were a subdivision and a house were on fire. The fire department wouldn’t show up and start putting water on all the houses because all houses matter. They would show up, and they would turn their water on the house that was burning because that’s the house that needs the help the most. I did let out a little chuckle when Stubb cried out, “That’s Christianity.” We see a sailor like Stubb, who doesn’t practice what he preaches, yet mocks the elderly cook. There’s even a small banter about the birthplace of Fleece, where Fleece explicitly said he was born in Roanoke, and when asked, Fleece reminds him that he had already told him. Stubb, hard of hearing, denounces that Fleece ever said that, and in the same breath, that he must go home and be born again because his sole purpose in life should be that of a cook, and if he cant even cook a whale steak correctly, what good is Fleece to not only the Pequod, but to his race in general.

Its quite thought provoking that this chapter comes after an intense and tension filled chapter of the hard work displayed of the sailors coming together as one to achieve an insurmountable mission, but just moments later, that can turn on a dime and have one reminded of their place, role, and purpose in society even when that society is thousands of miles away from land.