Analysis Of Ishmael By Daniel Quinn

Ishmael is written by Daniel Quinn. It opens with the narrator pursuing the newspaper, coming across an ad looking for a student with a desire to change the world. This is the premise of the novel because it discusses topics about how the earth is deteriorating and its humanity’s fault. The problems Daniel Quinn tackles are the deterioration of the earth and its atmosphere, the mass extinction of many species of life, and the increasing insufficiency of the earth in providing for its inhabitants. The purpose for writing this book is to expose certain issues with the environment and the world as it’s related to human nature.

The audience for this novel is the general public, based on the expulsion of how man is faulted. The narrator questions

what society or “mother culture” tells him which helps the reader begin to do the same. Ishmael, the teacher, is a gorilla in the story establish another perspective of humanity through the eyes of another species to be able to enact the same story of man objectively. The point of view, the author is supporting is the impartial overview of human nature as being destructively ignorant of the world. We are taught from a young age that humans were meant to rule over other creatures, by the personified “Mother Culture” that sways our thinking that we are greater and therefore, exempt from the natural “peace keeping law” which entails the stressing of human supremacy. Mother Culture enables the behavior that is causing the Earth's imminent destruction. As counterpoint, Quinn argues that humans should afford other species the opportunity to evolve and develop by not trying to control the world but by being at its mercy.
The treatment of religion is a controversial issue in Ishmael.

Quinn essentially denounces prophets, claiming that they enforce arbitrary laws on how to live. By providing definitive models for life, prophets allow humans to ignore the more important laws of nature. Religion gives humans license to do whatever they please with the world, blaming the gods for any natural problems. This approach is also reflected in Ishmael's treatment of the Genesis origin stories, which he considers allegories for the more important conflicts between Taker and Leaver societies. Though he enforces this thinking to his pupil, he does in fact speak heavily of the gods who created the world in relation to society. "It's certainly not always unspoken. The religions of your culture aren't reticent about it. Man is the end product of creation. Man is the creature for whom all the rest was made: this world, this solar system, this galaxy, the universe itself (57).” Here, Ishmael criticizes this philosophy as dangerous. Man has evolved by belonging to the world, but Taker society has effectively relinquished the evolutionary process by acting as though humans are separate from the world. The hubris is more than unattractive; it also causes an imbalance between population and food supply that is spiraling the world towards imminent disaster. Another controversial aspect is the animalistic view on philanthropic quests to feed the hungry, which continues the problem of the increasing the population. Quinn presents his philosophy of life, through the character Ishmael, giving clear and convincing examples of its accuracy. He divides humanity into two large groups: the Leavers and the Takers (Quinn’s vernacular for “the primitive” and “the civilized”). Ishmael provides stimulating perspectives on humanity’s numerous creation stories, and offers alternative interpretations of well-known Bible stories, such as that of Cain and Abel. Ishmael argues that Cain, an agriculturalist and a Taker, killed

Abel, a shepherd and a Leaver, in order to gain more land for cultivation. This conquest of peoples and lands for the purpose of cultivation, and later commerce, to the disadvantage of many of the world’s cultures and ecosystems, have been the overwhelming pattern in world history. Ishmael argues that this pattern is antagonistic to the universal laws of life. Humans have miserably defied the laws and created a mythology, to accord to their belief which the Bible or the Big Bang Theory, which defines humans as the climax of creation. Unless humans learn to see themselves as residents of the earth, rather than rulers of it, and recognize the destructiveness and unlawfulness of their ways, Ishmael predicts that they will annihilate themselves and the earth. I agree with the way he presents his viewpoint on humanity. His argument is convincing because he brings to light stories, such as Adam and Eve and the Tree of life, to explain how as people we believe we are the end result and the rulers of the world instead being a part of it.
Daniel Quinn does base his argument on scientific evidence and also historical and biblical proof such as, when Ishmael is explaining the story of Cain and Abel, he proposes that the story of Genesis was written by the Semites and later adapted to work within Hebrew and Christian belief structures. He proposes that Abel's extinction metaphorically represents the nomadic Semites' losing in their conflict with agriculturalists. As they were driven further into the Arabian Peninsula, the Semites became isolated from other herding cultures and, according to Ishmael, illustrated their plight through oral history, which was later adopted into the Hebrew book of Genesis. He also relies on the Big Bang Theory to describe the apex of humanity without denouncing its accuracy. "There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now (84)." Here, Ishmael has reached a point in his argument where he points out that civilization essentially dictates that the only way to make the world a better place is to conquer it. Anytime that man is faced with a trial from the planet, he reacts as an adversary would. Even natural disasters are viewed as a slight against man, the earth fighting against humans. Droughts and floods, both have a negative effect on food production, so they are seen as unscrupulous. For Leaver civilizations, on the contrary, they are merely viewed as unfortunate events that must be adapted to in order to survive, part of a circle of life.
The book as a whole was very interesting to read, extremely thought-provoking. Though Quinn’s plotting and writing style are only mediocre, Quinn’s subject matter is worthy of mass attention. His thought provoking prose is very influential and motivating to bring about change to society in the hopes of rewriting the status quo. It gives the human condition a new attitude towards civilization. The book also explains that if something doesn’t change we will crash into the ground after our ascending civilization flight. Quinn presents a clear argument as to why we need to change and why technology is not the suitable instrument for the refurbishment of the environment. Ishmael asks us to begin looking our surroundings without the distorting lens that "civilization" has placed before our eyes. The book removes this ignorance that we have heavily relied on. The view is forever changed with this new perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone with an earnest desire to save the world.