Reading chapters four through 12, reading chapter 10, ” A Bosom Friend”, such an intense and also a big development of friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg. It was heartwarming of seeing Ishmael seeking to develop a friendship with Queequeg. It’s cute and I am loving it. Melville wants us to understand the human connections, breaking barriers and putting our differences aside when it comes to understanding other people in a diverse world.
” I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing savage had redeemed it.” (57). At the beginning of the book, we see how Ishmael was afraid and wasn’t quite sure about Queequeg being his roommate, also being a cannibal! wasn’t in his bingo card of the year! We can see the development of their friendship Ishmael goes continuously in these couple of chapters finally wanting to understand him and be his friend by putting his idealisms( religion, beliefs etc.) aside. Whether we see them as a romantic or platonic friendship going on it’s something beautiful as a developing friendship that awakens during rough times, makes us seek for comforting situations.
There are good points here, and I would l like to see you develop them into more of an analytical tone and writing style. You write, “it’s something beautiful as a developing friendship that awakens during rough times”, and I think this is right. But can you now push towards an interpretation of WHY the novel begins with this friendship? What do you think is a stake in the depiction that you point us to notice?
Hi Darian,
I loved the way that you titled this, how it is reminiscent of fanfiction and the way that authors will express the pairings they are working with. I will say that, despite the time, arguments against their relationship being romantic do not hold water. The true beginning of the relationship – after the shared night, moving into the next – Ishmael makes the move to become closer but Queequeg truly brings the intimacy into their relationship. “He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me around the waist, and said that henceforth we were married; meaning, in his country’s phrase, that he were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be” (57).
While Queequeg uses marriage as the language to convey his feelings to Ishmael, Ishmael’s immediate adoption of it signifies a closer kinship. Even prior to this moment, Ishmael is regularly using the same analogy to say that Queequeg holds him like a wife, he is gentle and loving towards Ishmael (30). Their continued stay within the shared space only serves to strengthen that ideal: “How is it I know now; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg – a cosy, loving pair” (58).
At least, that’s what I’m getting from this section of chapters. I saw another person mention how it was almost a way for Melville to conceptualize and explore the relationship he had or wanted with Hawthorne. When you think of it in that context, what thoughts do you have on the presentation of the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg?
See you in class!
-Kit Jackson
Hi Darian! I enjoyed reading through your blog post. I would love to hear more on your thoughts about the friendship — or something more— between Ishmael and Queequeg. I agree that the opinions that Ishmael had on Queequeg did a total 180 and it is so interesting to read. There is definitely fondness and compassion shown towards him and I can’t wait to read more and hear more of your thoughts on it as we progress through the novel. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Darian,
One thing I was thinking about while reading your post is the historical context of this friendship, romantic or platonic. As we read this some 200 years later, we might see a lot of these intimate moments as more typical, yet this intimacy through the context of gender and race in the 1800s may have been controversial. I am interested in continuing to look through this lens when we get on the boat and meet all of the other sailors