The Moby-Dick Bible
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Themes › Superiority Vs. Inferiority

Superiority Vs. Inferiority

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

First: Being horizontal in its position, the Leviathan’s tail acts in a different manner from the tails of all other sea creatures. It never wriggles. In man or fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority. To the whale, his tail is the sole means of propulsion.

Chapter 86, The Tail · verse 9

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