The ending of MobyDick indicates that, according to the author, Nature is indifferent to human suffering. After the ship has sunk and all of its crew has died, small fowls are seen flying over the collapsing vortex, resuming their flight as if nothing had happened, and the sea itself "rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago". The natural elements exist on another time-frame that is separate from Man's own experience and suffering.