In “An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit,” by Daniel Quinn, Ishmael, the gorilla teaches the narrator, an anthropologist, that we as humans are anthropocentric when it comes to the natural world. This means that humans think they we are the center or the most important thing in the universe. On one hand, some may argue that the world was made for humans and not for the animals or anything else in society. From this perception, humans think that the world exists to support their species and to meet their needs, meaning that we egocentric. On the other hand, however, others argue that the natural world was not made just for man and that we should care more about other species and the environment. The issue is whether or not the natural world was …show more content…
Census Bureau, 2013) Based on a census in 2013, there are 7.125 billion people in the world. The world can hold much more than that. Which leads to the rest of the world occupied by the animal kingdom. Humans cannot live in this world without animals, off the simple fact of survival. If animals were not present, where would the food supply come from? It is recommended that a human needs 0.5-0.7 grams of protein per pound in the body. Not only are there mammals, like chickens, cows, pigs and other species like fish and shrimp but, the insects to consider also. These insects have a huge impact on the human race. Insects, like bees, provide the vegetation for humans. For example, a bee has to carry the pollen, which is produced by the flowers, to other flowers in order for this process of pollution to occur which has to happen in order for plants to grow and produce the fruits and vegetables for humans to eat in order to survive. Many of our medicine today comes from plants, so if there are no plants the human population will start to decline. If we rely on the Takers perspective, how would humans gain these proteins? One way could be resorting to eating other humans, which would lead to a decline in the population in the world to later extinction because everybody will resort in eating each other. Also we would run into ethical problems, like different people would have different perspectives on how we would choose our own practices and morals as to who and how people will be chosen to be eaten or in charge. Humans cannot survive without the nutrients from the fruits and vegetables, which are grown from the help of insects. The Leavers perspective backs up this point because they are saying every organism in the world serves a purpose and without one the others cannot
As a child, Ishmael Beah seemed like he was playful, curious, and adventurous. He had a family that loved him, and he had friends that supported him. Before the war, Ishmael had a childhood that was similar to most of the children in the United States. Unfortunately, the love and support Ishmael grew accustom to quickly vanished. His childhood and his innocence abruptly ended when he was forced to grow up due to the Sierra Leone Civil War. In 1991, Ishmael thought about survival rather than trivial things. Where was he going to go? What was he going to eat? Was he going to make it out of the war alive? The former questions were the thoughts that occupied Ishmaels mind. Despite his efforts, Ishmael became an unwilling participant in the war. At the age of thirteen, he became a
In the novel, Ishmael, David Quinn describes the difference in evolution between two groups of humans, the Takers and the Leavers. In the well known stories in the book of Genesis, when God created the world, God also created man. According to the Takers, God appointed man as ruler of this world. Ishmael’s reinterpretation of Genesis highlights how the Takers’ story immerged and how they fail to realize the destruction they are causing. Ishmael starts describing the Takers story by defining what a story is and how to enact one. A story is a, “scenario interrelating man, the world, and the gods” (41). Ishmael defines enacting a story as “to live so as to make the story a reality,” (41) or living the story to make it come true. Ishmael describes
Human are the most clever animals in the world. As the society developed, they are more concerned to seek for a harmony relationship with nature. The article “In the Forests of the Gombe” written by Jane Goodall describes the relationship of science and religious and the new understanding of humans through the forest. After Goodall’s husband died, she went through the Gombe jungle and found the new world by observing chimpanzees and staying in the quiet forest. Even though there are no communication between Goodall and chimpanzees in the forest, she still gets inner peace and enlightenment of science and religious.
Throughout the course of A Long Way Gone, we see Ishmael going through a number of hardships. Many people would consider these difficulties overwhelming, and near impossible to overcome. However, Ishmael shows resilience and overcomes hardships all through the book and displays the human condition through these complications in his life.
The wild is a place to push yourself to the limit and take a look at who you truly are inside. “Wilderness areas have value as symbols of unselfishness” (Nash). Roderick Nash’s philosophy states that the wilderness gives people an opportunity to learn humility but they fight this because they do not have a true desire to be humble. Human-kind wants to give out the illusion that they are nature lovers when in reality, they are far from it. “When we go to designated wilderness we are, as the 1964 act says, "visitors" in someone else's home” (Nash). People do not like what they cannot control and nature is uncontrollable. Ecocentrism, the belief that nature is the most important element of life, is not widely accepted. The novel Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer depicts a young boy who goes on an exploration to teach himself the true concept of humility. Chris McCandless, the protagonist, does not place confidence in the universal ideology that human beings are the most significant species on the planet, anthropocentrism.
Among the people of your culture, which want to destroy the world? Which want to destroy it? As far as I know, no one specifically wants to destroy the world. And yet you do destroy it, each of you. Each of you contribute daily to the destruction of the world. This truth was stated by a gorilla named Ishmael who, through his experiences of being taken from the jungle, placed in a zoo in the 1930's, put in a menagerie, and bought by a private owner named Mr. Sokolow, had all the time in a world to think about the world around him. Daniel Quinn writes about the horrifying realities of our culture in a book called Ishmael, by stepping outside of the world as we know it and describing what he sees through a talking gorilla. Behind the bars of his cage, he was able to take a look at our culture as an outsider, to see things that we never could. This sagacious, passive, and extremely patient primate wanted to share this knowledge to others so as to stop man from destroying the world. So, he placed an ad in the paper and caught the attention of an eager student, the narrator, who was willing to save the world.
Quinn gains a unique perspective on humanity through the main character of the novel, Ishmael. Ishmael is a gorilla. And Ishmael is a teacher who communicates with humans telepathically. On the surface, this hardly seems to be a character who would appear in a serious book; more likely a children's story, a fable, or perhaps a bad science fiction novel. Yet Ishmael is none of these, and Ishmael is a strong character, with a powerful intellect and a serious purpose. The character of Ishmael needs to be non-human in order to be effective. Looking in on civilization from the outside gives him a perspective from which to criticize humanity without hypocrisy. To hear the oppressor repent is not nearly so effective as to hear the voice of the oppressed demand freedom and restitution.
Daniel Quinn has written a book about how things have come to be the way they are. He looks at the meaning of the world and the fate of humans. Ishmael the main character is a teacher of vast wisdom, as well as being a Gorilla. Being no ordinary Gorilla, Ishmael recognises the failing of human kind in relation to their moral responsibilities. He ultimately directs use towards a solution to the problems we have created for the planet. Ishmael is trying to convey that man kind is living in such a way that we can not last. Our vast numbers alone is hindering our survival.
Human beings are destroying the world. It's a fact we all know. Pollution is abundant, we chop down rain forests, we kill our own kind, we steal, lie, and cheat, and the list could go on and on. Daniel Quinn believes that this destruction comes from something more extreme than just the notion to survive. In his novel, Ishmael, Quinn believes that the problems facing humanity are do to man's knowledge of good and evil.
“Is it right, in the deepest moral sense, for one conscious being to eat another?” Throughout Eating Apes, Dale Peterson takes the readers through what he experienced, saw, and the issues presented with trying to protect the apes to gear us to answer that question. He was able to do this with the stories of Karl Ammann, who took the photographs presented in the book, and Joseph Melloh, a gorilla hunter from Cameroon. Prior to taking this class, my knowledge of apes going extinct went as far as being aware that we needed to save them from extinction. However, I was unaware of neither how brutal apes were treated nor how pivotal they were to people in Central Africa’s diet – until I began reading Eating Apes. Eating Apes is a descriptive but difficult book to read through that describes why the ape population was diminishing and the various stakeholders involved.
For many years, people assumed that humans are significantly different from other species, which made them somewhat superior. However, research on animal behavior, especially our closest relatives, the apes has led to new discoveries that show many similarities between human and animals. Some of these similarities have questioned the uniqueness of humans and have led to debates not only among scientists but in the public as well. Frans de Waal, a renowned primatologist and the author of The Ape and the Sushi Master, is among the scientists that claim animals and humans are quite similar. The main focus of his book is to show that culture is not exclusive to humans. De Waal was not the first scientist to propose the theory that animals have culture nonetheless; it was received with a lot of enmity. He attributes this to the fear of losing the qualities that make humans special. Claims of language in apes became so threating that animal research was almost banned. According to de Waal, “attempts of censorship do reveal just how much insecurity surrounds human uniqueness”. (32) In an attempt to support his argument, he addresses the controversial issue of morality in animals. Morality is considered a cultural aspect and therefore people often use cultural biases in decision making. Dan Kahan, a psychologist, referred to this as cultural cognition, which “refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact to values that define their cultural identities”. Subsequently, theories on morality depend on the perspective of the scientists who carry out the research. De Waal supports his theory by analyzing aspects of morality in humans and comparing them to animal behavior.
A long way gone by Ishmael Beah, attempts to evoke a powerful response from the leader, by using vivid descriptions to show how he has become emotionally traumatized by the acts of violence in the war. The reader then sympathizes with Ishmael and begins to understand the lasting and deep, emotional pain that Ishmael deals with on a daily basis.
Ishmael begins when the nameless narrator finds a newspaper ad that reads: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person" (4).
In his lecture, primatologist Robert Sapolsky explains the uniqueness of humans as well as our similarities to other primates. In doing so, he broke it down into six points of interest: aggression, theory of mind, the golden rule, empathy, pleasure in anticipation and gratification postponement, and lastly, culture. Professor Sapolsky approaches each point with interesting fact-based examples thus allowing me to gain insight on humans and other primates. Sapolsky’s knowledge of primates along with his scientific background allows him to make a clear argument that one cannot simply ignore.
There are some books that you can just sit back and enjoy, just let the authors words wash over you and, most importantly, you don't have to think. And then there's Daniel Quinn's Ishmael.