Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

1906 Words8 Pages
The history of the world has shown that people always disagree about the right way to live. There is not a fact or faith that everyone believes or approves because of their religion, experiences, and an individual’s imagination. However, history has shown that most religions, individuals’ perspectives and imaginations would agree with this statement made by Daniel Quinn’s main character of Ishmael: “The world was made for man to conquer and rule, and under human rule it was meant to become a paradise” (Quinn 82). Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is about a gorilla who teaches the narrator a course about Captivity. The gorilla, named Ishmael, wants the narrator and the rest of humanity to have a Leaver mentality because it will prevent their extinction.…show more content…
In Ishmael, Quinn writes about the research he did for Ishmael’s Captivity lessons. The narrator explains that it took him four days to get his research together, which is about the peace-keeping law amongst living beings. Ishmael emphasizes how the world has survived: “You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war” (Quinn 129). Ishmael implies that humanity is forbidden from “[hunting] down [their] competitors or [destroying] their food or [denying] them access to food.” They should fairly compete with the other living beings to meet the peace-keeping law standards. In Into the Wild, there are multiple scenes that shows McCandless developing his hunting skills. In one scene, it shows how he struggled to hunt an animal. Chris shot the animal multiple times to conserve it for his future meals. After he saved it for later, the flies started to get around it. Eventually, he got frustrated attempting to run the flies off and left it for an eagle and three wolfs. Although, McCandless does not really know how to hunt, he allows his “competitors” or animals to hunt in any area by not “[denying] them access to food.” Despite him getting frustrated, McCandless did not “hunt down [his] competitors” or killed the eagle and wolfs while they were eating his hunt. These circumstances did not make McCandless violate “the peace-keeping law” which would make Ishmael approve his new life as a

More about Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

Open Document