Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

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Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is a novel about a teacher looking for a student and what they are trying the teach the student, and ultimately us the readers as well. The teacher goes on to talk about a few different subjects such as culture and the main subject of ‘how things came to be this way’. The teacher puts everything into terms that make you think about the subject deeply. Deeper than you might have if it were said in any other way. In the beginning, the reader and the student get a very unexpected surprise as we learn who the teacher is. If you just read the title, you can probably guess that the teacher is Ishmael but as we read we learn that he is a telepathic gorilla. The student, in shock, thinks about leaving until he meets eyes with…show more content…
He speaks to the student from inside their mind. When I read that, I was just as surprised as the student. I wondered how they were going to pull off a talking gorilla as the teacher. To me, the thought of that without it being a child’s book was kind of silly but it only expresses Quinn’s point better. Within the first couple of chapters we learn about Ishmael and what he intends to teach us. He talks about his years in captivity and how he became Ishmael. He tells us what he has learned in his many years of life and how he wants to change the world by teaching it to the student. He’s not just teaching us “how things came to be this way” but also teaching us to step back and take a look at the world and society. I thought that this concept was great and I found it very interesting. Even with only reading the first few chapters, there was a lot to think about and discuss with my…show more content…
I really enjoyed the way this was worded because once he explained what our story was, it was kind of like the pieces just fell together. Ishmael gave an example by telling Kurt and Hans’ story and explained what the Germans were captives of back is Nazi Germany. The Germans were captives to the narrative or story that they were told. They were told that they were winning, they were the best and they had nothing to worry about. The narrative was patriotic and what they all wanted to hear so everyone went with it and lived as though it was the truth. The same is said about America. Basically our story is that Christopher Columbus came, Thanksgiving happened with the natives, the country was civilized, America has always been and will always be the land or opportunity, everyone can work hard and get rich with no obstacles. America is perfect and better than everyone else. This is what we are born to believe in and born to live by so we are also captives to a narrative. Ishmael then goes onto explain who the Takers and the Leavers are. The Takers are the people of the student’s culture and their story is that “the world was made for man, and man was made to rule it.” So basically instead of living with all the other living beings in the world, the Takers are taught to believe that they are on top of the food chain and they are the most

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