Environmental Issues In Ishmael

What is the ultimate goal of the human race? Is it to control all of the resources on earth or is it to fit into the grand scheme of sustaining the planet? Author Daniel Quinn explored this concept of human ethics and sustainability in his novel Ishmael. Ishmael, a telepathic gorilla, helps expand the narrator’s awareness of how the human race behaves presently. Ishmael and the narrator explored topics like the effectiveness of human resource usage and how to handle the explicit decay of the environment. Although this novel included a telepathic gorilla, it presented many problems present in today’s society. Ishmael was an avid critic of the hunting and gathering lifestyle. A problem Quinn had with this lifestyle was the tendency to overhunt. For example, he says “when animals go hunting—even extremely

He believes laws are not absolute and are easily broken by members of society. He indicates that the only way to fix this environmental problem is to persuade the members. He says “You can’t change these things with laws. You must change people’s minds.” (Quinn, 152). Laws are not needed when the society has a shared view of what is right and wrong. It is up to the agents of change to convince critics to what is most beneficial to the society. Overall Ishmael was an amazing novel that exposing many problems found in today’s society. I find the concept of ‘takers’ and ‘leavers’ very intriguing. I agree with the motion that many humans are takers. We consistently destroy our ozone, over fish and destroy ecosystems. I love the connection Ishmael made between bible fables and the leavers point of view. The narrator learned that there are different points of view to a single event. Us, as human must learn this lesson, then we can finally come together and work towards a more sustainable