In chapter 64 of Moby Dick, titled “Stubb’s Supper”, the Pequod had just made their first whaling kill and were in the process of hulling in the exploits from their venture. During the transportation of these various items, Stubb specifically requests Daggo to cut a piece from the whale so he can cook a steak. As Stubb begins making his meal in the midst of night, thousands of sharks can be heard simultaneously attacking what remains of the whale below him in the water.
In this scene, the sharks are purposefully in juxtaposition to Stubb to demonstrate how they are both participating in the same action for the same purpose—survival in their respective worlds.
“About midnight that steak was cut and cooked; and lighted by two lanterns of sperm oil, Stubb stoutly stood up to his spermaceti supper at the capstan-head, as if that capstan were a sideboard. Nor was Stubb the only banqueter on whale’s flesh that night. Mingling their mumblings with his own mastication’s, thousands on thousands of sharks, swarming round the dead leviathan, smackingly feasted on its fatness.” (319).
This scene is meant to symbolize the consumerist society they live in and what becomes necessary to survive in this capitalist system. In order to participate in this capitalist society, it becomes necessary for an individual in the workforce to become violent themselves in order to survive this type of system.
The whaling industry during this time period was very integrated into everyday society as indicated by the everyday items people were using and consuming. Even in this very scene, Stubb is only able to cook his food from the whale during midnight because he has light from “lanterns of sperm oil.” Although Stubb is the only living character, the whale’s presence dominates the atmosphere because of how integral and necessary it is in society and specifically to Stubb’s survival—as he is literally feeding off the whale. The whale becomes both sustenance of survival [food] and a commodity for consumer consumption [lantern oil].
The importance of the whale cannot be overlooked in these scenes despite not even being alive anymore. The whale is instead transformed through acts of violence to become “useful” in our society—and there is no other way to procure these materials without the means of violence
However, the way Stubb goes about preparing his meal isn’t particularly visualized as “violent” in the scene as to how it was portrayed in the previous chapter. Instead, the sharks are utilized in comparison to Stubb in order to visualize the violence behind this everyday act of simply preparing a meal. As Stubb feasts, the violence festers below him over the same exact thing in a much more cruder description. Depicting thousands of sharks and using descriptors such as “mastication” and “smackingly” to show the brutalization of the whale during this process and the sheer number of sharks that depend on this feast for their own survival.
In comparison to a capitalist society, it can also represent the overwhelming number of people who depend on the whaling industry to provide for these commodities. Much like the sharks, a large number of people need the whaling industry, and depend on it to survive. It not only provides products, but also provides a job and purpose for an individual—if they can adapt to the violence necessary for such a task.
Stubbs is the perfect character to display this adaptation because he operates on logic and knows what he needs to do to maintain his station. Although Stubbs isn’t actually feasting with the sharks, in a sense, the sharks and Stubbs are one in the same—the work force in their society, and much like in our capitalist society, the procurement of products and the consumption of exploits is built on a system of violent expenditures. This characterizes the capitalist whaling industry as an institution of violence. With the work force in the society adapting to be more like sharks in order to survive and thrive.
However, that’s not to say that all sharks [workers] are created equal. For it’s not Stubb’s that procures the steak for his meal, but it’s his subordinate Daggo—and Stubb’s does not share with anyone. This solitary act of eating what others provide and reinforces the power-dynamics between characters and how violence and influence is seen as power. Stubb is not only representing the work-force at this moment but also the consumers who don’t realize the work of others to produce their items. The work behind the carnage is unseen–out of sight out of mind. However, the sharks bring that carnage back to the forefront.
In the previous chapter, the whalers crudely killed the whale, but this act was framed in the sense of accomplishment of their goals, rather than what it actually is—-the act of killing a living creature in order to benefit from what we can use from it. That’s why the scene depicting both Stubbs and the sharks acting in the same manner allows us to make these comparisons on our own volition.
The sharks were acting erratically, manically tearing apart the beast—-but so were all the men in the previous chapter and the beginning of this chapter. Man and beast become one in the same through their mutual violent acts against the whale. The sharks become necessary to displaying the raw brutality in the act of a killing—regardless of the general motivation. The sharks did it to eat, the whalers did it because it’s their job and that’s what’s necessary in the society they live in.
However, that begs the bigger question of if the means of procuring these items justifies the violence in their retrieval—-why is the violence necessary?
This is because violence becomes necessary due to capitalism. The whalers live in a capitalist society that thrives for continuous economic growth and competitive markets, and as a result, they are pushed to be better than their competitors. For whoever has the most money in this society, holds the most power. This individualistic and competitive mindset are what leads to the pursuit of power through any means necessary and this typically manifests into a particular type of violence. In whaling, it has manifested in the overhunting of whales in the pursuit of profit and to just survive in general. Just like the sharks, many people are just trying to survive in the world that they live in. If violence becomes a means of survival, then we must be violent. This is what this scene depicts, how because of the capitalist society they live in, the work force has had to adapt to violence. For in order to survive in a cruel world, we must become violent—we must become sharks.
