Ishmael # 6 QQC

Alana Espineli

21 May 2009

Quote-Question-Comment from 207-254

"People can't just give up a story. That's what the kids tried to do in the sixties and the seventies. They tried to stop living like Takers, but there was no other way for them to live. They failed because you can't just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in." (Quinn, 214)

Question: If Takers understand their story as well as the Leaver's story, will they then be able to switch stories?

Comment: I agree. No one can just give up on a story, especially one that they're in. At the beginning of the novel, Alan didn't even know about Takers or Leavers and the stories that they were enacting. I'm assuming Alan is quite informed in many subjects, especially those concerning the state of our planet, and since he didn't know about these stories, I highly doubt that a majority of civilization is aware of these stories. People need to understand these stories so that they may decide which one they want to be in. However, I think that once someone is born into the Taker society and has been living as a Taker for their entire life, it will be very difficult for them to just become Leavers. They are already attuned to the Taker lifestyle and suddenly changing that could present consequences. For example, maybe their body is used to the Taker lifestyle and once they become Leavers, they will be putting different things into their body and treating their bodies differently than before. This could cause them to possibly become sick. If they were sick as a Taker, they could just go to the hospital or pick up some medication at the drugstore around the corner. As a Leaver, they wouldn't have that type of service available to them. I think that perhaps Takers could slowly transition into a Leaver lifestyle. However, they wouldn't just be able to jump right into it. They would first need to understand the Leaver AND the Taker lifestyles.