Written by Daniel
Quinn, Ishmael is a philosophical
novel that bridges the gap between fiction and non-fiction tales. Quinn
centralizes his book on themes related to ecological and ethnical advocacy,
which are common among his other works such as The Story of B and My Ishmael.
This 1992 philosophical novel questions notions of whether or not human beings
are the dominate species on Earth. It is mentioned by the main character “Ishmael”
(a Socratic gorilla) that human dominance is a cultural myth and will result in
the downfall of mankind.
Ishmael, the gorilla, has
a mission to teach human beings about the creation of life, the world, and
Earth’s imminent destruction. He is an animal taken out of his home and ends up
in a menagerie. His greatest strength is having the intellectual capability to
communicate through his mind. The story begins with him posting an ad in a newspaper,
hoping to find a pupil to teach. An anonymous character discovers the ad only
to find out that his teacher is actually a gorilla. The two of them meet
frequently and the anonymous character is left with thought provoking questions.
One is whether human beings are the most important species of Earth. Ishmael
implies that humans destroy the world and possess the power to stop it. Ishmael
states in one section to his pupil, “Everyone in your culture knows this. Man
was born to turn the world into paradise, but tragically he was born flawed.
And so his paradise has always been spoiled by stupidity, greed,
destructiveness, and shortsightedness.”
Between chapters, both
characters tell the story from their perspective. It will be easy for readers
to get lost in the dialogue between Ishmael and his pupil. The novel also has a
habit of jumping between character narrations. It’s hard to determine who is
actually telling the story, or from what point of view is being told. The
dialogue becomes so complex that it’s easy to forget that Ishmael is a gorilla.
This is despite references to him being caged throughout the first eighty pages,
or eating bamboo at a desk beside his owner.
Quinn has a creative
way of using a gorilla to teach a human about Creation and world destruction.
It does have a particular way of holding the reader’s attention because of the
fact that Ishmael is a gorilla. Some individuals who read the book may look at
it as cliché, but others will find it profound. A gorilla is a fitting subject
for the novel. Gorillas have become an endangered species and Ishmael conveys the story from the
perspective of a sophisticated animal that has been directly affected by humans
destroying the planet.
One of Ishmael’s most
interesting ideals is on the different types of humans in the world- “Takers’’
and “Leavers.’’ He claims that Takers are a part of a “civilized” group of
society. They are the part of society that believed that the world was made for
man, thus man should conquer it. “Leavers,” he says, are a part of a
“primitive” culture of society. They alienate themselves from the rest of the
“civilized” society. Takers are a group in human culture-Americans in
particular- that have inherited an ideal of claiming whatever Earth’s
resources, or other lands they can.
Ishmael
is
not trying to be too religious or self-righteous. There are no political lines
being drawn in Quinn’s story, even though one could argue that he’s taking a
liberal approach to his philosophy. Although Quinn’s novel is philosophical, it’s
also meant to invoke common sense. Its ideas like the novels originally
premises, "With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla?" that allow
the readers to engage in the story further. The reader is the unnamed pupil, and
Quinn’s novel knows the answers that most readers will search for.
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