The Hypocrisy of Religion in Moby DickStubb decides to lecture Old Fleece on religion after waking him up to complain about his overcooked whale steak. Stubb not only asks Fleece to "preach" to the sharks who are making a big racket eating the dead whale chained to the ship, but compares Fleece's inability to "properly" cook a whale steak to Fleece's unchristian ways. This passage is an excellent example of the theme of the hypocrisy of religion in Moby Dick. Before Stubb calls Fleece, Ishmael compares the shark's actions to the man's actions. He first compares Stubb to sharks: "Stubb wasn't even the only one feasting on whale meat that night. Mixing their muttering with his own chomping, thousands upon thousands of sharks, swarming around the dead leviathan, feasted merrily with his fatness" (Melville ___ ). Comparing Stubb to a shark, Ishmael paints him as bestial and uncivilized, two traits that contradict the Christianity he professes and ministers to Fleece. Two further references are made to consolidate the comparison; Ishmael describes the "smacking" of Stubb's "epicurean lips", and Stubb himself says that he prefers his whale steak the way sharks prefer it. Next, Ishmael alludes to the connection between sharks and humans in general. “The few sleepers below in their bunks were often startled by the loud thump of their tails against the hull, just inches from the sleepers' hearts” (___). This line poses a contradiction; How is it possible that the sharks' tails are just a few centimeters from the crew's heart? The tails hit the hull of the ship, because the hull of a whaler would be much wider than a few centimeters. What Ishmael means when he says "inches from the hearts of the sleepers" is... center of paper... Stubb is ordered to perform a series of tasks, including bowing to Stubb. Religion is nothing more than a hierarchy, where those in power are able to use others in the name of religion. Fleece never shows any sign of relief or amusement at being a Christian now; in fact, he appears to have undergone the conversion precisely so that Stubb would let him go to bed. As Fleece walks away from Stubb, he murmurs to himself, "I wish, by God! Whale eat him, 'instead of him eat whale. I'm sorry if he's no more a shark than Massa Shark himself" (___). This is the climax of the scene, in which Fleece explains that sharks, wild beasts without religion, and Stubb, an educated Christian, are quite similar. This makes Stubb a hypocrite and his Christian belief system questionable. Works Cited Mellville, Herman. Moby Dick. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964.