Moby Dick is a novel about the insensible, especially that of Ahab in his chase for the whale. His insensibility goes as far as putting his crew and his own life in danger, going against his own human instinct for survival. Melville writes of sensibility in Chapter 121 through a conversation between Stubb and Flask, concluding with a statement about sensibility as a choice, “Why don’t ye be sensible, Flask? It’s easy to be sensible; why don’t ye, then? Any man with half an eye can be sensible.” (pg. 555). By including this very popular sentiment in the backdrop of Ahab’s insensibility, Melville brings into question the irrationality of ration. Humans are not intrinsically born with ‘sensibility’, it is gained through our interactions with established rules of sensibility, of what is right or wrong. Our belief in human sensibility is taken for granted, pointed out by Melville using the voice of Stubb. Sensibility is a human construct, one that gets jumbled at sea away from the established rules on land. The insensible becomes sensible on Ahab’s ship, and because the construct of sensibility is not questioned by the shipmates, they too aid in their own destruction by following in Ahab’s insensibility, believing that those who establish rules must be the most sensible.

Authority goes hand in hand with knowledge, knowledge is knowing what is ‘sensibile’. Stubb refers to being sensible as ‘easy’, easy in adhering to the rules of the establishment. By saying being sensible is ‘easy’, Melville critiques the ease in which humans believe in the rules created by those who get to decide; easy is not having to decide at all, easy is not having to think at all. Melville continues his critique of sensibility with Stubb’s shame of the insensible, that it is somehow in their deficiency that they cannot be sensible, noting that anyone with ‘half an eye’ can easily do this. By specifically referring to the act of seeing what is sensible, there is a reference to the blindness of the masses in seeing the corruption/insensibility that happens right in front of their eyes. Stubb shames Flask by bringing up a deficiency in those who are deemed ‘insensible’, further prompting the cycle of ease in following the establishment rather than being shamed for opening your eyes to what is truly going on.