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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does the narrator say when Ishmael asks if he would go back to prehistoric times?
2. How does the narrator characterize Art Owens?
3. According to Ishmael, which is NOT a ‘trick’ the gods played on the Takers?
4. What event does Ishmael put at 8,000 B.C. on his timeline?
5. What does Ishmael say the Takers repudiated when they split from the Leavers?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Ishmael say the Takers are fulfilling the story in which creation came to an end with them?
2. What is man’s role and responsibility as Ishmael describes it from the Leavers’ perspective?
3. The narrator says that he wants to know the Leavers’ story so he can stop the destruction of the Takers’ story. Why does Ishmael say this is insufficient?
4. What does the narrator say is his chief objection to the Leavers’ lifestyle?
5. How does Ishmael characterize the work of competing for food in Taker culture?
6. How do Ishmael and the narrator say that culture changed when the agricultural revolution took place?
7. Where has Ishmael gone when the narrator shows up again at the office building, and how does the narrator reconnect with him?
8. What does the narrator say he would do to figure out the fundamental law of the community Ishmael describes?
9. How does Ishmael characterize the debate among the gods about an equitable way to take care of the animals?
10. What major change has taken place in the dialogue in Chapter 9, and what has brought this change about?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How do you think times have changed since Daniel Quinn published Ishmael in 1992? Is Ishmael’s story still applicable? Have Ishmael’s teachings been learned anywhere? Where are people advocating Ishmael’s views, and what influence are they having?
Essay Topic 2
Who is the audience for Ishmael? What is the ideal reader for Ishmael likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?
Essay Topic 3
Is Ishmael an attack on Judaic-Christian culture, a call for reform, or something else? Use examples from the text, in addition to your knowledge of Judaic and Christian culture.
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This section contains 1,050 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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