Ishmael

1. Ishmael An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

2. The ISH-ue • Narrator sees an ad • Ad says “Teacher Seeks Pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.” • Narrator has always wanted to save the world • Believes ad is bogus • Goes to an office building to apply • Sees a giant gorilla • Gorilla tells narrator about his life and how he came to be intelligent • Speaking telepathically

3. The Creation Myth Pt. 1 • Ishmael, the gorilla, tells the narrator that every culture has a creation myth • Ishmael asks the narrator about the human creation myth • Narrator tells about the big bang theory • Ishmael says there are three parts to the creation myth • Creation, humans, agricultural boom

4. The Creation Myth Pt. 2 • Ishmael says if he asked a pink blob three million years ago what their creation myth was they would say it ended with Jellyfish • Creation did not end with Jellyfish • Creation does not end with man • Humans believe that the universe was created for them

5. Law of Human Behavior • There’s a law for all things • Ex. Law of Gravity • Law of Human Behavior • Broken by modern civilization • Ishameltells of the A B C’s

6. The ABC’s • No hierarchy in this society • A’s eat C’s • B’s eat A’s • C’s eat B’s • They have a law • Law keeps everyone happy • Everyone follows it • Figuratively someone breaks the law (How would you discover what the law was?) • Three guidelines • “What makes their society work well” • “What they never do” • “What he did that they never do” (Quinn 117)

7. Plants = A’s • Plant eaters = B’s • Predators = C’s • Left over from predators (C’s) return to the earth to feed A’s • Worked for billions of years • “Man is exempt from this law. The gods never meant man to be bound by it.” (Quinn 119) • Humans indirectly destroying the world The A B C’s relative to humans

8. Ecology of the ABC’s • Any species will want to expand up until the food supply can handle • Humans break the law • “Kill off everything you can’t eat” • “Kill of anything that eats what you eat” • “Kill off anything that doesn’t feed what you eat” (Quinn 131) • “One species exempting itself from this law has the same ultimate effect as all species exempting themselves” (Quinn 132)

9. The Gods • Gods didn’t know how to rule • They ate from the tree of knowledge • They learned who should live and who should die • Humans were created • Humans were to eat from the tree of life • Humans instead ate from the tree of knowledge • Instead we simply believed we knew good from evil but we do not • Humans believe we are equal to the Gods and can assume the role

10. Cain and Abel fought because of different views • Cain • Agricultural (Taker) • Abel • Hunter Gatherer (Leaver) • “God is on our side. He loves us herders but hates those murderous tillers of the soil from the north” (Quinn 174) Cain & Abel

11. Characters

12. Ishmael • Gorilla captured at youth – spent years in captivity • Grows to be more self aware • Walter Sokolow encourages his intellectual growth through their telepathic communication • Becomes a teacher whose focus is on how to save the world • Tries to understand why humans feel that they have to dominate the world (Takers), rather than be content with being a more primitive culture (Leavers).

13. Spent his youth in search of a teacher interested in teaching him how to save the world • Ishmael's fifth student and the only one who isn't completely defeated at the end of his instruction • Open-minded and maintains his desire to save the world, though he often finds it difficult to maintain a sense of hope • See’s Ishmael as not only a teacher but a friend • Unsure of his ability to be a teacher after Ishmael's death The Narrator

14. Mr. Partridge • Walters butler who still cares for Ishmael after he leaves the Sokolow estate Rachael Sokolow • Takes care of Ishmael after her father dies Walter Sokolow • Rescues Ishmael from a traveling carnival and helps him educate himself and becomes his first true friend