All 3 Uses of
conflict
in
Moby Dick
- And brave as he might be, it was that sort of bravery chiefly, visible in some intrepid men, which, while generally abiding firm in the conflict with seas, or winds, or whales, or any of the ordinary irrational horrors of the world, yet cannot withstand those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors, which sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an enraged and mighty man.†
Chpt 25-27 *
- Second: It is a little significant, that while one sperm whale only fights another sperm whale with his head and jaw, nevertheless, in his conflicts with man, he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail.†
Chpt 85-87
- For not to speak of his readiness in ordinary duties:—repairing stove boats, sprung spars, reforming the shape of clumsy-bladed oars, inserting bull's eyes in the deck, or new tree-nails in the side planks, and other miscellaneous matters more directly pertaining to his special business; he was moreover unhesitatingly expert in all manner of conflicting aptitudes, both useful and capricious.†
Chpt 106-108
Definition:
-
(conflict) a struggle or disagreementin various senses, including:
- a serious disagreement -- as in "political conflict"
- the tension from two opposing ideas or feelings -- as in "I'm conflicted about where I should go to college."
- a violent fight or war -- as in "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict"
- an idiom that refers to tension between responsibilities to different entities -- "conflict of interest"