The novel, Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, written by Daniel Quinn, tells the story of a young man who spent a majority of his life looking for a personal mentor for himself. He was shocked to find an advertisement in the newspaper, which vaguely said that a teacher was seeking a student. Despite thinking the ad is a fake, he goes to the address. There, he finds an empty office. He sees a gorilla in a conjoining room and realizes that the he can communicate with him telepathically. This gorilla reveals his name, Ishmael, and his experiences of the world as he has experienced it. He touches on the concept of captivity, his being obvious as he was held in a zoo. He tells the narrator that humanity is “unable to find the bars of the cage” meaning that our planet is our cage; we are restricted to a certain number of resources and space. Instead of living with this belief in mind, we live lives that seem limitless. Throughout the novel, author Daniel Quinn speaks in different ways through Ishmael to deliver this message to the audience.
Ishmael tells the narrator about Mother Culture, which tells a story that is so general, we usually do not notice it. The influences it has on the moments of everyone’s lives, however, is substantial. This story is really the relationship of humans, the world, and the gods we believe in. According to Ishmael, when we live according to a story we think is a reality, we are enacting it. The people enacting the story are what define the culture. Leavers are people who are typically in primitive cultures while takers are found in more civilized countries. Leavers are those who live on what they have, aware of the environment around them. Takers, on the other hand, will use, and sometimes ov...
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...issues relevant to today on a scale that I could see and understand more clearly than if I read the solid information in a textbook. I particularly found it interesting how Quinn could make all of the biblical references, analogies, and the ideas of Takers and Leavers apply to how we live in our current day society, despite its twelve year age. That means we have been living like this for much too long, which is a concept that is almost too scary to think about. Without thinking about it and sharing the thoughts with others, just as the story of Ishmael taught us, no difference can be made. On a scale from one to ten, I would give this book a rating of a 9. It was intriguing and kept me coming back for more, however, I think the book could be more effective if Daniel Quinn made the narrator gender ambiguous because more of the audience could relate to the character.
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, written by Daniel Quinn, the narrator has spent most of his life looking for a teacher so he can learn to save the world. When the narrator was reading the paper he found an ad searching for a student interested in saving the world. After arriving at the address he finds a gorilla named Ishmael, who communicates telepathically. (Quinn, 1995)
In his personal memoir titled “A long way Gone” Ishmael Beah incorporated the concept of family into his personal story. Traveling in a world of his own Beah encountered different events where his approach to family evolved. From losing his important primary family, and establishing close relationships with individuals he met along his journey. Hope, revenge, trust & love were three important key stages discovered as his definition and approach to family changed.
In the novel, “Ishmael,” Daniel Quinn introduces two groups of people with an apparent connection with Mother Culture; the Takers and Leavers of the world. Quinn’s intended purpose of introducing these two very distinct groups of people in “Ishmael” is to show an outsider’s perspective on the world’s captivity, the creation myth, and the fate of the world- all of which are often given by Mother Culture. The Takers and Leavers appear to have very different belief systems and methods. The Takers, for example, have their organized religion to tell their stories, while Leavers have their spirituality to tell their stories.
“I’ll be right back,” said Jennings Michael Burch’s mom as she dropped the eight-year-old off at an orphanage in New York city. The boy had no idea how long he would be there or the heart wrenching reasons for is stay. The story They Cage the Animals at Night is an autobiography written by Jennings. He tells the tale of his eight year old self living with a broken family. He is constantly moved from orphanage to orphanage, rarely gets to spend time with his mom, struggles in school, and is tormented by kids of his age and nuns that are supposed to take care of him. The only friend Jennings has is his stuffed dog that he received from his first orphanage and refers to as “Doggie”. The story ends with, what seems to be, an end to his struggles.
Other species. Different people. Different others. Something that I almost missed while reading this book was the theme of diversity. Diversity in looks, thoughts, and mainly opinions. The Taker and Leaver culture was presented to guide humans to the right way, yet it did much more than that. The two different cultures were brought out because they were basically different. If I were to press the button and go back to pre revolutionary times, would I ever have met man when he wasn’t in control? The Taker culture wouldn’t have existed and I wouldn’t have a button to press. These different perspectives of how to live are defined by the laws of nature. For example, in chapter 10, when the narrator was explaining the myths of his people, he got onto the topic of Hammurabi’s laws. “And Hammurabi says, ‘Laws are things that tell you the one right way to live” (Quinn
My overall opinion of this book is good I really liked it and recommend it to anyone. It is a good book to read and it keep you interested throughout the whole book.
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.
Being no ordinary Gorilla, Ishmael recognises the failings of humankind 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 is living in such a way that we can not last. Our vast numbers alone hinder our survival. Moral responsibility is a clear theme in this text.
Since the beginning of time, man has lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, supporting himself by hunting animals and living off the land around him. This lifestyle is considered to be living in the hands of the gods. Meaning, the gods decide man’s fate, including who should live and who should die, and what resources would be available to him. As a result, man was considered equal to animals, neither one was more powerful than the other. This meant man would have to compete to survive like all animals do. Because of this competition, man would have to evolve. Evolution was necessary in order to support and prevent man from becoming extinct. Man evolved from Australopithecus all the way to Homo sapiens sapiens, which is today’s mankind. However, around 10,000 years ago or in 8000 B.C., man believed he was meant to rule and conquer the world and decided to take control of his own life and take it out of the gods’ hands. By doing this, man was suggesting that the gods were not needed any more, and instead were fine without them. In order to separate from the gods, man would have to become an agriculturist. This would require man to create his own food by harvesting and producing the necessary crops, maintain cattle, and settle down. Settling down would allow man to abandon the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and begin to produce more food than what is needed and save for hard times. Thus, allowing man to not worry about droughts or any other natural disasters that could cause him to have a shortage of food. According to Ishmael, agriculture and religion have both been destructive to man’s future.
Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael is the story of one man’s quest for knowledge and his desire to “save the world”. Answering a simple ad in the paper of a teacher looking for students (p4), the narrator is sent on an incredible philosophical journey. The teacher our narrator expects is not that which he finds, however, as our titular character Ishmael, so aptly named by Walter Sokolow (p18) as he sensed the gorilla’s almost divine presence, is that teacher. This teaching is made possible by Ishmael’s miraculous telepathic way of communication (p21).
Leavers have also been enacting a story—one that Ishmael claims gave rise to the birth of humanity...
I would recommend this book to a certain type of person that I am not. This book would be great for someone who wants to learn more about the fishes that most commonly end up on their plate. If someone was interested in in the future of the oceans and the last wild food, this book would be great for them. While I did not enjoy the book I still give it three stars out of five due to being full of good information to those that want it.
A small part that stuck out to me that I kind of disliked was how Ben described the church as his mistress at the beginning of chapter one. Not my favorite word choice, but I did not completely dislike it because I saw where he was coming from when making this point. Also, after hearing other people’s opinions on the book this part was something that many people complained about which could have swayed my opinion on it. Ben makes many points throughout the book that gets the reader thinking and he does not force his views on the readers; he simply gives his findings for what he researched and how he applied it to his personal life and work life. I did not like some of the decisions he made in his life, but it was those decisions that lead him to do his research and better his life for. I did not like the decisions because they were choices I would not have made, but he is not me and I am not him. If he had not made the choices he did, the research he had collected would not
series for two reasons. The first reason is because it ties up all the questions I had from the other books. This book really was a good ending, for me at least. And the second reason is because it’s just a great book. It has mystery, suspense, humor, action and many more things that keep you from putting the book down. On a scale of one to ten I would rate this ten and it is also my number one favorite book (so far).