Is This the End?

Chapter 12 of Ishmael is a very unique chapter as it shows how the student appreciates Ishmael, and it demonstrates as well that Ishmael liked his student more as a friend. After talking about the curriculum they had followed and finished answering some questions that had been posted since the start of the lessons, Ishmael had accomplished everything he had to teach his student. The only thing Ishmael expected from his student was for him to keep teaching all the knowledge he had from Ishmael.

In the first part of the chapter it shows the way the student cares for Ishmael, he wants to buy him to take him back to the city, for Ishmael to believe he's not a captive in a carnival, just as he was before Mr. Sokolow bought him. after having a very small probability of being able to buy him, he went back to the cage to finish with the lesson they had left with, about the Leavers and Takers, and their differences and why they were both very important in the steps of creation. A very important thing to point out is that creatures that live in the hands of gods evolve, and "Man became man by living in the hands of god."(pg. 237). A question that pervaded through the entire story was: why did man evolve and in this chapter the answer to this question is given, "You mean he was still part of the general community of life."(pg. 238) this doesn't clearly state the answer, but it means that we have evolved because we were part of the general community and we lived in the hands of gods, and that is also part of the answer to creation. "According to the Taker story, creation came to an end with man."(pg. 238) and this other quotation demonstrates the other part of the answer to creation.

At the end of the chapter, the student starting pointing out the main points he had learned and concluded with one idea: "…contrary to the impression one receives from prison movies, the prison population is not at all an undifferentiated mass."(pg. 251), this explains that prisoners can have almost anything they please to have. Then he makes this comparison: "The world of the Takers is one vast prison, and except for a handful of Leavers scattered across the world, the entire human race is now inside that prison."(pg. 251). With this comparison Quinn is trying to tell us that all Takers are able to get almost anything they want, but as in prisons, there are still social differences that will make a small impact to the rest of the prisoners. After he was done talking about this conclusion, Ishmael told him that he had already passed him all his knowledge and with this he would have to keep teaching others to be able to make a difference in the world.

At the end I started questioning with these questions: Why is Ishmael thinking about his future? How would the relationship between Ishmael and the student be after this last lesson? Will they see each other again? I will have to finish reading the book to be able to clarify my doubts.