Brief Summary Of Ishmael By Daniel Quinn

The book, Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, was thought provoking and puzzling. The most engaging topic that continued to be extremely relevant throughout the book was about the flaws in the human race. Ishmael believes all of human sin stems from the lack of knowledge on how to live. He argues, “If you knew how you ought to live, then the flaw in man could be controlled… [and] you wouldn’t be forever screwing up the world.” There were many great breathtaking and heart stopping phrases in this book, but this one was my metaphorical heart attack. I had never heard such a impressive and compelling claim of the origin of sin that wasn’t based on religion. As humans, we spend so much time trying to figure out what decision is the best decision; What should I eat for breakfast? What should I study in college? What career do I want to do for the rest of my life? Currently all of our laws come from either people or religious figures. Since not everyone supports a single person or agrees on a single religion, none of these laws are universal. The thought of having answers and laws to all of those questions for everyone does sound like a perfect world with order and pristine understanding.
After I asked myself this question, I quickly became puzzled. Even if we knew exactly how to live, would we follow it? I am inclined to believe our selfishness is the true root to all of our issues. Stuck in our selfish ways, we would probably ignore the perfect plan because it was constructed by someone other than ourselves. We would still want to be in control of our destiny, so I question whether or not Ishmael found the real problem. If he didn’t find the real problem, then the solution would be