The Moby-Dick Bible
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Symbolism › Misanthropic Spear

Misanthropic Spear

1 passage in the novel carry this mark, in the order they appear.

The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters. Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this leviathan seems the banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back.

Chapter 32, Cetology · verse 35

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