I want to take us back to the passage of the painting when he first arrives at the inn, looking at the painting at first, it made no sense but the more you looked at the painting through the smudge and smoke that one would think the painting is ruined but when you keep coming back to it and stand there for a while, it all makes sense minute by minute.
now to my point, Ishmael seems to very obsessed with Queequeq, he can’t help but sit and stare at him, he is taking him in even though he doesn’t really get it/him.
“With much interest I sat watching him. Savage though he was, and hideously marred about the face-at least to my taste.” (55) then he later says…
“As I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in that mild stage when, after it’s first intensity has warmed the air, it then only glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering round the casements; the storm booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me.” (57)
Queequeq is the painting, he is ran through in Ishmael’s eyes but for some reason he can’t get away from standing and staring at him, he keeps coming back like a revolving door. He wants to analyze him and get to know what what doesn’t make sense on the outside to further know what the true meaning is, just like this painting that has been through the ringer but Ishmael still found beauty in it.
I also want to make a second point about how this book is very much the new romantics, this book is fully about romance and the relationship with Ishmael’s soundings, truly everything is romantic to him, he can walk the street and see someone being eaten and still find the words to romanticize it.
“this ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in the fog.” (46)
He truly is gathering this idea to make anything and everything sound beautiful even though what he is describing is boring.
Hey Sam. I thought that your post was really interesting and thought provoking. Comparing Queequeg to the painting that Ishmael notices in the Spouter-Inn isn’t something I had put together, but by reading your response I actually see what you’re talking about and I agree with you. Much like the strange painting, Ishmael can’t keep his eyes off of Queequeg, he is an almost hypnotizing character through the eyes of Ishmael, one that he cannot figure out but has a great sense of companionship (or possibly even some more than that) towards him.
I also like how you brought up Ishmael’s ability to romanticize pretty much anything and everything. He is definitely someone who can find the beauty in most things, even the strangest of things. At first glance Ishmael is frightened of Queequeg because of the way he looks, but soon after he begins to romanticize his looks and his personality, something he does quite often with many things as we’ve seen so far in the novel.
Hello Sam! I enjoyed reading through your well-thought-out blog post! I think you hit it right on with this one! Like how we talked in class about how a few people analyzed Queeqeg as the painting can be seen as a way to show off the fact that not just paintings can be admired down to their small details, humans too. Melville uses a lot of descriptive words as Ishmael is attentively watching Queeqeg. I wonder if we will see more of their relationship continue throughout the story while on the boat. I want to think that someone might betray someone else, but we shall see.
Not sure how I got logged out for a minute, but that Anonymous post was me lol. Hi, haha its Zoe!