Leavers: The Differences Between Takers And Leavers

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Carla Sánchez Torres Professor Eileen Tejada ENGL 120 8 October 2017 Takers and Leavers The terms Takers and Leavers are ones that the author, Daniel Quinn, uses to distinguish two types of people in his novel, Ishmael. So, what is it that separates Takers and Leavers and how do we know which one we fall under? There are multiple concepts that the Quinn covers to really understand "how things came to be this way" which is what underlines the story of the Ishmael and digs to find the Takers and Leavers roles (42). The most fundamental difference between Takers and Leavers is that Takers believe that the world was made for them and Leavers believe themselves to belong to the world. Even though this isn't explicitly mentioned everywhere, it is …show more content…

According to Quinn, Takers live their lives with the end goal of one day being able to conquer everything in the world (78). The thing is that they can't seem to do that without destroying the world faster than ever, and no one seems to know why that is that they can't control themselves so that the world can heal. On the other hand, Leavers and all other species follow this rule, "Take what you need, leave the rest alone" (Quinn 133). Because the world is made for people, then it would make sense that we do as we please with it, and if others think otherwise, then that's too …show more content…

The way that Quinn describes connections between Takers and connections between Leavers is with the simile of a hand, "…family is like a hand, of which they are fingers. They are fully aware of being a family but are little aware of being individuals. […] Five severed fingers do not make a hand." (13) He uses this simile to point out that Takers don't naturally form a community and look for how to take care of each other. In a society centered around capitalism, it is more natural to think of everyone as individuals and work for what's best for themselves and their own situations. As I had mentioned previously, the economy has made it so there is always constant competition creating a situation where if some people are greatly successful profit-wise, others will be struggling with making ends

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