The Literature Network - Melville's 'Moby Dick.' (Herman Melville)

Melville's 'Moby Dick.' (Herman Melville)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 19950101
Author:Phillips, Rod

The short conversation between Stubb and Fleece in the Stubb's Supper chapter of Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' is often considered as a comedy relief to the novels lengthy narratives. However, this episide is much more than a comic interlude. This dialogue expounded some of Melville's most crucial views regarding the harshness of human and nonhuman nature and the dialectics between civilization and savagery.

The chapter "Stubb's Supper" in Moby Dick has often been dismissed by critics as a comic interlude in a weighty text. But this brief exchange between Stubb, the Pequod's second mate, ...

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