Ishmael #7 Question

Alana Espineli

Final Blog

How, according to Ishmael, can we save the world? And according to you?

Saving the world. Is this task even possible? Is it a too daunting task to even approach? Do people even care about what happens to this world one they no longer inhabit it? In the novel Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, a telepathic gorilla named Ishmael teaches his student (later known as Alan Lomax about captivity. Alan learns about Ishmael's class through a newspaper ad that read:

TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person.

At the end of the novel, Ishmael tells his pupil what he must do in effort to save the world. He gives Alan a program that says the following:

• The story of Genesis must be reversed. First, Cain must stop murdering Abel. This is essential is you're to survive. The Leavers are the endangered species most critical to the world--not because they're humans but because they alone can show the destroyers of the that there is no right way to live. An then, of course, you must spit out the fruit of that forbidden tree. You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die on this planet. [...] What you do is teach a hundred what I've taught you, and inspire each of them to teach a hundred.  (Quinn, 248)

Those are the ways that Ishmael proposes that the world is saved. He says "You must change people's minds" (Quinn, 249). This is quite a daunting task for just one person. To change the minds of the billions of people on planet earth alone would be impossible. That is why Ishmael told his student to teach one-hundred and that one-hundred could each teach one-hundred and so on and so forth. By changing the minds of Takers around the world, those Takers would then start changing the way they behave towards the world and the way the think. That is the method that Ishmael suggests to Alan for saving the world.

After reading this novel and working on this project in general, I think that my own opinions on how the world be saved have changed. Previously, I just thought it was just the little things that we did that would at least help the earth in some small way. I was aware of various issues that the planet is facing. However, I was not fully in tune with the technicalities of this issues. Now, I am looking at the world in a different way, quite similar to Ishmael's point of view. Although I do not agree with him in all of his teachings, I do agree with many of them. Now, I do think that we must first change people's minds before we attempt to change the way they treat the planet. Something that I have been thinking about since doing this project is the whole "Go Green" concept. Ever since doing the journal on whether it is truly a lifestyle or just a marketing scheme, I have been thinking about it a lot. Going green seems to be a very popular trend right now so I do think that marketers are taking advantage of this to make money. The consumers of these products are usually spending more money on these products than regular products. However, I think it could be a lifestyle if approached in the right way. That is if there really is a right way. If someone wants to save the world, I think they must change their minds. They must change the way they think, their lifestyle and the way that think about the world, divine intentions and the destiny of man.