The Struggle for Racial Uplift Essay Example for Free

The Struggle for Racial Uplift Essay* shipwreck survivor. He was caught in the jungles of Africa at a teenage age and has existd his living in captivity ever since. He offshooted out in a zoo-purchased by Walter Sokolow, with whom he learned to communicate telepathically. * casta agencys investigation focused on the issue of captivity-and grew into a more comprehensive exploration of military personnelity. * outcast helps the teller understand his cultural hi fib. Ishmael divides human into 2 groups Leavers and Takers. * Takers ar members who believe you should dominate rootage the planet, then the universe, through technological innovations. Leavers ar members of tribal glosss that live simple, basic rules that find other races on Earth.* Ishmael helps the narrator see that engrossr culture is in freefall, ricochet to crash once you capture got depleted the planet of its biological and environmental resources. * Ishmael extracts the narrator how conglom erate cultural myths have helped shape both cultures. One main myth he disputees is the legend of turn and Eve. -historically this myth was used by Leaver cultures to formulate the expansion of Taker cultures. -Leavers were trying to understand wherefore Takers had false to agriculture and were trying to force their focusing of tone on the Leavers. -Takers had eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and detestation the tree of the gods must eat from in order to know who should live and die. Only to know that that con establishment does not belong to life- form on earth. * Narrator becomes a watcher in Ishmaels honor, in hopes to teach masses about the taker culture and find a new way to live w/others on earth.Character List and outline* Ishmael- they see themselves as superior and removed from the rules that bodily building the evolution and excerpt of other life-forms on the planet. * through his research on human history, hes come to see that they, too, are en wrapped to a destructive way of life in their interest group of domination over the rest of the world. * by means of his studies, Ishmael tries to understand why mankind feel called to dominate the world, and he teaches the explanation hes come up with to his school-age child (the narrator)Narrator* The nameless narrator is Ishmaels fifth student and the only mavin who isnt completely overcome at the end of his appriseion. * Hes open-minded and wields his desire to save the world, though he often finds it difficult to maintain a sense of hope. * Analysis* cultural revolution of the late 1960s * constructing the novel in commencement ceremony person, the reader closely aligns himself with the narrator and can sympathize with the problematic feeling of giving up ones untested dreams * by being both named and renamed, Ishmael gains a stronger sense of himself as an individual. He is not the fiend enemy Goliath- alone rather Ishmael, the cast-off son of Abraham. * Quinns use of biblical allusions for Ishmaels names structure the kind he has with humans. While gaol, hes a goliath, an unkn accept monster. Once hes able to communicate with humans and share their knowledge, he is equal a distant relative, as the offspring of Ishmael are to the offspring of Isaac in the Bible. * why are things the way they are? This question is first presented by Ishmael in his memories of life in the zoo. snap off 1* Rachels mother, who has perpetually resented Ishmaels relationship with her husband and daughter. * When Ishmael moved in the city he became a teacher, his key subject being the issue of captivity. * Ishmael says that, while it may not result if one individual secures the lie, it could alter the world if the entire human population discovered the truth. Analysis al-Qaida to answer the novels central question why are things the way they are? -Ishmael uses rhetorical strategies, such as asking guiding questions and storytelling, to engage his pupil -huma ns are captive to a civilizational system and are futile to see the bars of the cage. social function 2* Ishmael explain The first is that story is the explanation of the relationship between humans, the world, and the gods. * second is that to enact something is to live as if a certain story is a reality. * The troika term he defines is culture, which is a group of wad enacting a story. * start Culture concludes that the Leavers story is the first chapter of humankinds development and the Takers are the second chapter. * narrator insists there is no overarching story or myth that forms his culture. * Greeks did not think of their myths as myths either rather, what are now considered myths were just the stories that structured their lives. Analysis-Quinn associates takers with civilization and leavers with primitive cultures. Additionally, Ishmael provides the narrator with tierce key definitions for story, to enact, and culture. -framework for Ishmaels exploration of Takers an d Leavers, who are groups of people with their own story theyre enacting as a culture. erupt 3* myth contains facts, those facts are arranged in a way that adumbrates the point of the formation of the universe and evolution is the formation of man. Ishmael claims that this is the central idea behind the Takers culture that Earth was do to support human life Analysis- storytelling is essential to the narrators epiphany in this section. -story featuring a jellyfish rather than a human at the end of it, narrator begins to see the difference between fact and myth. Ishmael and the narrator discuss the way culture influences humans, and on the micro level as a means for Ishmael to instruct the narrator. -many of Ishmaels statements to the narrator are in the form of leading questions. cancel 4* Taker Culture, middle of the story is humankinds succession as hunter-gatherers, a time when they were liveliness much as other animals do. * for humankind to achieve its destiny, it had to d iscover agriculture, which provided it with the means of staying in one place and developing civilization and technology. * so why must man do this? Whats the purpose of rising supra the other animals? Ishmael has the narrator imagine an Earth without humans on it * Ishmael helps the narrator see the coterminous part of the story man was put on Earth to rule it, and to do so he had to conquer it.* Taker cultural story suggests that things are the way they are because man had to fulfill his destiny of conquering everything, really things are the way they are because man hasnt become the ruler of the world, nevertheless its destroyer and enemy. Analysis- why are things the way they are evolves in Part 4 through Ishmaels use of imaginative exercises and Socratic dialogue. * Ishmael encourages the narrator to imagine Earth without man. with this creative exercise, the narrator sees the world in a new way and better understands his culture myth. * explain how Takers justify the dest ruction of the worlds natural resources and wildlife, the narrator says that Takers would see this as the price that must be gainful to advance human culture.Part 5* figure out the end of the story. * man has been put on Earth to conquer it, in conquering it hes caused a lot of problems. * but at the end of his story is that humans are inherently flawed and thus will continue to screw up their pursuit of paradise. * Ishmael asks what evidence his culture uses to back up its claim of being flawed, and the narrator admits it only uses its own history. * topic of prophets and asks the narrator why Taker culture is so obsessed with prophets. Analysis- have Culture says humans do not know how to live, so they rely on prophets to tell them what to do. Ishmael foreshadows that the narrator is ready for the next step to see the world through the Leavers eyes, rather than the Takers.Part 6* Mother Culture would suggest that humans are above any law that applies to the rest of life on eart h. * regardless of what Mother Culture says, the law of living applies, and that hell use the resemblance of gravity and flight to explain. * Takers gods tricked the Takers in three ways-the Takers not the center of the universe-humans evolved just like everything else, even though they feel above evolution. -not actually exempt from the laws of life.* even though it feels like flight, and Takers are accelerating toward a crash. Takers in like manner see accustomed attempts at civilization (for example, the Mayans) but nonetheless believe that their attempt will survive because it has worked so far. Analysis -Taker culture it is obedient to a law about living, but it is ignorant of that law and so is ineffectual to see how its doomed to fail. -Newton discovered the law of gravity by observation. Ishmael also builds on this analogy to explain that the only way to understand what laws organisms must live by is by observing living organisms. -Mother Culture tells Takers that theyre above the laws of life, they too are in free fall, and lastly their civilization will also crash due to its inability to follow the laws of life.Part 7* ishmael invites the narrator to imagine himself in a foreign land where everyone is happy * Through more questioning, the narrator discovers he has three guides with which to nail down down the law by which they live -what makes their society successful what people in the society neer do -what a person who has broken the law has done that the others never do. * species of creatures on the planet have followed this rule and prospered it is only that when a portion of humans decided to abandon the law and live beyond it that Earths ecosystems were thrown out of balance. * He realizes that he doesnt want to complete this task, once hes learned Ishmaels lesson hell be left alone again.Analysis-Ishmaels analogy allows the narrator to better see how wildlife also follows similar rules and that Takers have tried to abandon such rules. -n arrator is upset by this proposition as he realizes that, if hes successful, hell eventually no longer be Ishmaels pupil. -What will he become when hes no longer a student?Part 8 (1-6)* takes the narrator four days to figure out the basic laws of life. He returns to Ishmael on the fifth day with his findings. * He says the three basic rules. What they promote? -promotes diversity and survival for the conjunction as a whole since it favors no species above the rest. * Ishmael-ecological principles, when food supplies increase, populations increase. Additionally, when population increases, food decreases and when food decreases, population decreases as well. * increasing populations leads to more and more groups of starving people among the population as a whole. Part 8 (7-10)* The American Heritage Book of Indians, and instructs him to look at the map. * narrator admits theres nothing stopping people from changing geographies, and this helps Ishmael make his key point -there were c ultural and territorial boundaries between the diverse tribes that lived in the Americas prior to the arrival of European settlers. * narrator feels hopeless he thinks no one in Taker culture will be willing to kill off Mother Culture and try another way of life. * Ishmael helps the narrator see that the overarching law is that the world was made for many species to live on, not for one to dominate the rest. * Taker culture. They fill their lives with distractions and drugs to make up for the lack of satisfaction Analysis-Ishmael points out, people in Leaver cultures follow up dramatically fewer cases of addiction and suicide. -Leaver culture might be a key way to change the destructive path Taker culture.Part 9 (1-8)* Taker culture took off with the beginning of the Agricultural Revolution and that it has been cattle ranch ever since. * The Gods were arguing, whether which species should prosper.they decide to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil-soon they had godly power. * Gods were worried knew humans would be tempted to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and have godly powers too- so they forbid the tree. * story has always remained mysterious to Takers as it doesnt make sense why it should be forbidden. Analysis-explains the roles of gods and humans and the problems that occur when humans take on the role of the gods. -knowledge of the gods, which is the ability to determine what should live and what should die. -differences between the two is their cultural attitudes to the rest of life on the planet.Part 9 (9-11)* Taker destiny, they had to take land from the herders. Ishmael instructs the narrator to read the story of Cain and Abel to better understand how this expansion took shape. * Cain represents the Takers who must kill the Leavers (Abel) in order to expand agricultural production. -Cain and Abel arent actual brothers, but representatives of different human cultures. * Takers, through the spread of Christianity, ca me to adopt a tale that once was used to show their shortcomings as one of their own creation myths.Part 9 (12-17)* in order to understand why the Takers were invading their land and taking it from them, they had to figure out how they got to be the way they are. * the gods, upset with these Takers, had banished them from the garden of life, forcing these people to get their food through the hard work of farming. * Taker perspective, is not the right to have the knowledge of the gods, but the issue of disobedience-story makes much more sense when told from the Leavers perspective. Analysis- Ishmael helps the narrator to see how Leavers saw the Takers as ill-starred -Leavers saw the story of The Fall as the story of the Takers becoming cursed, the Takers saw it as the story of their result -The Fall has evolved not to explain the formation of humans on earth, but the formation of a particular proposition culture -Takers interpretation, he is punished for disobeying the gods, not fo r the knowledge he gained. Takers are able to make the story a tale of hope/tale of warning, as it is for the Leavers Adam has eaten of the gods tree and thus must die.Part 10 (1-4)* sidetracked by work and a dental emergency, causing him to miss several days of meetings with Ishmael. * Ishmael got evicted. * Narrator finds Ishmael in a slideshow carnival. The narrator tries to help Ishmael, but Ishmael doesnt appreciate the narrator butting into his personal life. Analysis Ishmael is cold, distant, and wary of the narrators desire to fix the situation. -thru narrator and Ishmaels dispute. Ishmael learns to distrust humans benevolence and resents his dependency on the kindness of humans in order to have a passable life.Part 10 (5-9)* narrator defines culture as whats passed along from generation to generation. For Leaver cultures, culture has evolved since the start of the species and is passed down Analysis -Takers transmit knowledge of agricultural production over the centuries , constantly expanding and improving on the technology used to grow crops. -Leaver cultures transmit knowledge about living well and the way of life of a specific culture rather than the means of production. -Evolution to explain differences between leaver and taker cultures. -leaver cultural structure evolved allowing their cultural practices to adapt and support their livelihood in the environment in which they find themselves. -Taker Cultural structure responds to its cultural beliefs that man is made to rule the world and that everything in the culture is designed to bring the environment under humankind.Part 11* Mother Culture-technological development * life before the Agricultural Revolution was stately and that to live that way would be reprehensible. * narrator tells Ishmael that while he may have replete food, he doesnt have enough to free himself from the gods Analysis-If offered to go back to hunter-gatherer time- Taker society for that matter, would reject the offer b ecause Mother Culture has taught him that such a lifestyle is intrinsically worse than Taker Culture.Part 12 (1-6)* Still imprisoned and sleepy, Ishmael asks narrator what happens to Leaver cultures that does not happen to Takers? * evolution is what happens because Leavers remain within the community of life. * removing themselves from the rules that govern life on earth, have removed themselves from evolution. * parts role on earth? a guide or role model a figure that sets the standard for how self-aware, intelligent life-forms should act to take in and promote biodiversity. Analysis-Taker culture has removed itself from the chain of evolution by living outside the ecological laws.-focused on the historical events that have resulted in the current state of human dominance on the Earth environmental degradation-Humans should rethink their role to have a positive rather than negative impact on the worlds ecology Part 12 (7-12)* chapter two of the Leavers story-the issue of civili zation. the attitude civilized nations have toward the world. * Ishmael tells him he must be a teacher, for humans minds must change before their actions will. * that all members of Taker culture are imprisoned by a destructive, unfulfilling way of life. And, like any prison, it has ways of distracting inmates so they dont notice the conditions. analytic thinking -Ishmael suggests to the narrator, the only way to change peoples actions is to start with theirminds.-Ishmael reminded the narrator of the ways Mother Culture hides the bars of her prison.-help his chap prisoners see what binds them to their ecologically destructive way of life. Part 13* Ishmael dies.Analysis narrator declension that his self absorption enabled him to see that Ishmael was sick.-With Gorilla Gone, Will There Be Hope for Man? contemplate what action should come next after such philosophical debate and discussion.