In The Book, Ishmael An Adventure Of The Mind And Spirit,

To start with, the story begins when Ishmael and his rap-passionate friends are all headed to Mattru Jong for a talent show, “I left home with Junior...and Talloi...to go to the town of Mattru Jong, to participate in our friends talent show” (Beah, p.6). As one can see, he was just a vulnerable, naive boy before mayhem broke loose around him. Moreover, Ishmael endures an extremely perilous adventure in the jungle while fleeing war. But even though he evaded real danger for a while, he was never able to elude his imaginary fears, “I felt as if somebody was after me. Often my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles. Everything felt awkwardly brutal. Even the air seemed to want to attack me and break my neck” (Beah, p.49). According to this situation, Ishmael was nothing more than a scared little boy who is simply running for his life. Even though this is a good point, it fails to account for the multiple massacres Ishmael contributed to,“...I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and shot more people. I shot everything that moved...” (Beah, p.119). How can one be innocent and naive after picking up a gun and using it against a human being? At the end of the day, guns don’t kill people, people kill people and this is exactly what Ishmael did. He killed. And killed. And

It doesn’t have to be that way. Instead we could be conscience about how our actions affect the world around us; but no if someone were to try to change and make the world better that person would be labeled as a deviant. Ishmael asks if the narrator has heard of the story and the narrator say, “no what story?” Ishmael says that the story has no need to be named or discussed, everyone knows it by heart by the time they are six or seven. No one notices it though because we are all caught up in the story, its not until we take the blinders off that we see the story everywhere. Instead of being labeled as a deviant, everyone goes with the flow and does what they are told, even if it isn’t the right thing to do. This is what happened with the people of Germany during the Nazi reign. Ishmael talks about how Adolf Hitler was able to get the people of Germany to do heinous acts to other people just by feeding them a story. The people in Germany were captives to the story that Hitler was feeding them. There were people in Germany that realized that the story being fed to them was just that a story; but they stayied the course because of the vast number of people enthralled in the story who were willing to give their lives to protect it. Ishmael says to the narrator, “I’m telling you this because the people of your culture are in much the same situation. Like the people of Nazi Germany, they are captives of a story.” What does this mean for us, are we just going along with a story? One might ask, how does one save the world, when the entire world is enthralled in a story? The answer to that question may never answered. The takers are to immersed in the story that is being fed to them to wake up and see what they are doing to the

Ishmael’s point is that human culture operates under a creation myth where man is the climax of evolution even though the universe continues to develop and evolution is still occuring, man assumes that the Earth was made for them, since they were its ultimate creation and final product. The narrator then concludes that the premise of the Taker’s story is that "the world was made for man" (Quinn) (61). The jellyfish story gives another

The fact that the author used a gorilla as the teacher made the message so much more empowering, than if it were a human, because it symbolizes an outside source looking in. A gorilla is not a part of the taker culture, so that is why Ishmael was able to create an insight that was so in depth, that a human, a part of the taker culture, would not be able to recognize on their own. Because Ishmael is a

Our agriculture systems destroy vast amounts of habitat and food for other species the world over. The way we grow our crops since the beginning has essentially been nothing more than clearing whatever was there to make room for what we want. This leads to the denial of food to animals, the destruction of their food sources, and the subsequent elimination of competitors for the food we desire. We cover our crops in herbicides to destroy weeds and pesticides to kill insects. We have killed animals such as wolfs that have attacked our livestock. Ishmael and the Narrator came to consensus on the Law of Limited Competition. Other members of the community of life may compete with each other, but it is only man who enters into full-out war. In the effort to create human comforts, we inflict tragedy upon almost all others. Just as it was outlined in the book, we have eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We feel specially ordained to choose what lives and dies. What thrives and survives. Moreover, that kind of story violates the most fundamental values of life here or

Ishmael explains how the gods tricked the takers in three ways. One, is that they made the takers think the Earth revolves around them. Two, is that the humans think that they are above evolution and advanced. Three, is the humans aren’t excused from the laws of life. Ishmael explains to the narrator that the takers are eventually going to “crash and burn.”

In the attempt to comprehend the meaning of being human, it’s important to first understand what it must mean to be pure evil. If we can know what pure evil is, we can understand the conditions that brought Ishmael to do such horrid things himself. In several chapters of the book, Ishmael goes through the torture of the militia known as the

As one critic put it, good books generate a "healthy confusion," a curious combination of "pleasure and disquietude." Ishmael is no different. Much of the confusion present in this work stems from the assertion by Daniel Quinn that most of the lessons taught by the monotheistic religions of the world have gaping holes in them. They provide a shaky framework for a self-sustaining culture, and soon man will pay for his ignorance by the destruction of the environment. Quinn goes on to say that most of the world revolves around totalitarian agriculture, a way of life that bleeds the land dry of fo~,.) Since this type of agricultural abuse is good at producing food surpluses~"o supports the growing world

Personally I believe throughout the memoir Ishmael’s life is impassioned, he experiences trust issues and has difficulty opening up to others. He slowly dividend self-confidence; pushing himself to be empathetic towards others. No matter what you go through, if you keep going and you have supporters you can overcome a harsh past. Ishmael was ten years young before his life path took a bitter turn. He was an innocent young boy traveling a journey from their village, Mogbwemo to Mattru Jong with two of his friend to see his mother and little brother. After two days of visiting his mother, Ishmael continues his journey to Kabati, his grandmother’s village still with his two friends. Though he visits his families during the journey, he hopes to

Ismael is novel that pointe it in that the human need to change their way of life and they have to stop what they doing to the world. According to Ishmael the human destroyed the world and kill the animals like the gorillas. Ishmael is gorilla he said the men destroying the world and they have to stop doing what they do. He and the narrator are describing everything in the world what happen in the world right now. They make the people to parts takers and leavers. Philosophy of this story that the people have to know how the other things around them look to them. The human think they are the best in this world, but Ishmael said that the human is destroying the world. Each them in the book has purpose to say it in the book. For example,

Ishmael shows that he is all of these poor qualities because he spends most of his time making himself microscopic to Barry Bagsley, the school bully. Ishmael does not put his hand up knowing Barry will mock and ridicule him. This demonstrates that Ishmael is panic stricken whenever it comes to facing Barry or when- ever he is in sight. Ishmael does not dare to go near Barry on the yard knowing that he will endure taunts and a variety of insults. When Ishmael states “Sometimes I couldn't even recognize myself” (p. 21) It makes evident that Ishmael’s self esteem is immensely affected by Barry in class and on the school

2. What does Ishmael mean on page 91, when he says, “the world of thought is coterminous with your culture”?

Humans are inherently affected by the environment displayed by Kanei’s actions as a navigator and Ishmael’s decision to steal. Kanei was confused by his surroundings and that affected his decisions. Kanei is one of Ishmael’s traveling buddies. Ishmael and his friends heard

Ishmael had been killing people and hurting others, he went up to a man, “i grabbed the man’s neck and slit his throat in one fluid motion”(Beah 125) Ishmael had killed a man by slitting his throat, he had also killed tons of other people. Ishmael had been doing this and made people victims without even knowing. He had been a victim of the war but now he is making others victims, being a victimizer. Ishmael had been killing people so much he had been used to it. Ishmael had though, “We had been fighting for over two years and killing had been a daily activity. i felt no pity for anyone” (Beah 126). Ishmael fit the role as a victimizer because he had been killing a lot of people. Since he had been killing people he does not care that he is killing people, he does not feel anything for the people that he is killing. Ishmael made people victims and did not realize of even care, he did not even care that people were dying and having effects just like he was. Ishmael fits the role as victimizer because he had killed people and made them be victims of the war just like he

We often read stories in the Bible without taking the historical context into consideration. As a result, we become unaware of the story’s historical validity. In some cases, stories are used to share a moral concept, or used as a tool to teach a lesson. The Book of Jonah is an example that will be used to determine if this particular story describes an accurate recount of history, or if it teaches the readers a lesson. In the Book of Jonah, Jonah (the prophet) is instructed to go to a pagan city (Nineveh) to preach to the Ninevites, hoping that they will repent for their sins. However, he challenges God and travels to Tarshish instead. Jonah receives consequences for his actions and Nineveh is eventually forgiven by God. Although the