The Hypocrisy of Religion in Moby DickStubb decides to give Old Fleece a lecture on religion after waking him up to complain about his whale steak being too much cooked. Not only does Stubb ask Fleece to "preach" to the sharks who are making considerable noise while eating the dead whale chained to the ship, but he compares Fleece's inability to cook a whale steak "properly" to Fleece's unchristian ways. This passage is a great example of the theme of the hypocrisy of religion in Moby Dick. Before Stubb calls on Fleece, Ishmael compares the shark's actions to the man's actions. He first compares Stubb to sharks: “Nor was Stubb the only one to eat whale flesh that night. Mingling their muttering with its own chewing, thousands and thousands of sharks, swarming around the dead leviathan, feasted on its fat” (Melville ___). Comparing Stubb to a shark, Ishmael describes him as bestial and uncivilized, two traits which contradict the Christianity he professes and exercises with Fleece. Two additional references are made to solidify the comparison; Ishmael describes the "smacking" of Stubb's "epicurean lips", and Stubb himself says he prefers his whale steak the way sharks prefer it. Next, Ishmael alludes to the connection between sharks and man in general. “The few sleepers downstairs in their bunks were often startled by the violent smacking of their tails against the hull, inches from the sleepers' hearts” (___). This line poses a contradiction; How can the sharks' tails be inches from the crew's hearts while the tails are hitting the hull of the ship, because the hull of a whaleboat would be much wider than a few inches. What Ishmael means when he says "a few centimeters from the hearts of the sleepers" is...... in the middle of a paper ......es of Stubb, he is ordered to carry out a a number of tasks, including bowing. in Stubb. Religion is nothing more than a hierarchy, in which those in power can use others in the name of religion. Fleece never shows any signs of relief or joy at being a Christian now; in fact, he seems to have undergone the conversion just so Stubb would let him lie down. As Fleece walks away from Stubb, he mutters to himself, "I wish I could, by gor!" the whale eats him, instead of him, eats the whale. I'm worried if he's no more of a shark than Massa Shark himself” (___). This is the climax of the scene, where Fleece explains that sharks, wild beasts without religion, and Stubb, a cultured 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.