Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael - The Destruction Continues :: Quinn Ishmael Essays

Ishmael - The Destruction Continues Ishmael The biblical depiction of ecstasy and Eves "fall" builds the foundation of Daniel Quinns novel, Ishmael. In this adventure of the spirit, a telepathic gorilla, Ishmael, uses the storey of Biblical characters in order to explain his philosophy on rescue the world. Attracting his final student, the narrator of the novel, with an advertisement "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an longing desire to save the world. Apply in person," Ishmael counsels the narrator by dint of a series of questions that force him to stretch his mind. Diving straight into Biblical allusions, Ishmael begins his lesson with the history of his evolution from "Goliath" (17) to Ishmael. He explains this evolution as a time of realization where he shifts from blindly accepting the ill-famed reputation of Goliath, an evil giant from the Bible, to the quiet, thoughtful being of Ishmael. After his draft history, Ishmael shifts his attention to the creation. "A culture is a people enacting a story" (41), and the story of the Garden of Eden opened up clean thoughts on mans transformation from dependent to independent beings. When go game and Eve began their lives on earth, they fully depended on the gods for all their necessities. Just like all of the former(a) animals in the garden, they followed the philosophy of "leavers" and left the question of who should live and who should die up to the gods. However, the serpent, a member of the "taker" group tempted Eve with fruit from a manoeuver that would give them the knowledge of life and death. Eve, which means "life" (179) in turn, tempted Adam with the fruit. Although pre-warned that eating this forbidden fruit would kill man, Adam fell into come-on and his desire for life. Through this action, his eyes were partially opened to the gods vision. However, this knowledge in conclusion would lead to the fulfillment of the gods warnings t hat "the worlds doom was assured" (166). After mans realization, he laid himself in a category separate from the animals and beasts that continued to rely on the worlds situation rather than themselves. An allusion to the Biblical story of Adam and Eves descendents, Cain and Abel continued the promotion of mans shift from leavers, to what they are now, takers. The taker philosophy that "the world was made for man" (61), epitomized the their headstrong attitude that the universe was meant to be conquered and exploited by humans.