Ishmael, Moby Dick, prophecy

[Anonymous No.12699527]

Ishmael is the inheritor of Abraham's will. Exiled though he was, he was not apart from God; he was blessed by Him to inherit a kingdom and sire many sons as in his prophetic naming by God. Grown by himself in the wild as a young man, he becomes an archer and a wanderer before settling his kingdom and fathering his sons. In which ways does this relate to the Ishmael of Moby Dick, and in a way Herman Melville himself?
Melville's father died when he was a teenager, though he wasn't forced to leave home. If he were exiled, it was much in the same manner as his Ishmael - self imposed exile as a sailor following academic disappointments. Thereafter he and Ishmael certainly wandered, and whaling is analogous to archery. Ishmael's life following the sinking of the Pequod is not entirely clear, though he miraculously survives and is apparently successful in some way afterwards. Maybe this is a sign of God's blessing of Ishmael, that he is destined his kingdom after facing the wild, and not to face death before achieving it.
Melville's own life after his sailing days was clearly very painful for him in its mundanity, he must have thought himself cheated of his destiny in a way. He had always been proud of his rhetorical and linguistic ability, but he never achieved his destiny of "kingdom", literary primacy of his domain, until much after his death.

[Anonymous No.12700333]

*honk*

[Anonymous No.12700351]

>>12699527
I never thought of it going beyond Ishmael's initial fate. He is cast out by his father and must find his own way, as Melville did when his father died young, he had to self-educate and work at the same time. The Biblical Ishmael went to the plains and ruled the nomadic peoples as a warrior king, Moby-Dick Ishmael went to sea and didn't really rule anything.

I don't think Melville really considered himself an intellectual before he went to sea. I remember there is a letter to Hawthorne where he writes something like "I was not born until I was 24" because he felt he had barely any intellectual and literary development until then.

[Anonymous No.12700646]

>>12700351
>"I was not born until I was 24"
>tfw 23 and feel like a genuine retard
>tfw only recently started reading and writing "good" pieces
maybe i do in fact have time to create great pieces of writing
thanks melville. i love you, my friend.


I also just recently finished moby dick for the first time and it is incredible. something in my soul is almost aching to read it again. maybe in a couple years.