Ishmael Chapter 9

I have to say that this was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting chapter so far. It really makes me think about things that have never even crossed my mind before.

The beginning of the chapter Ishmael makes a drastic change. He is no longer on the other side of the glass, now when they meet he is near the narrator. At first this startles the narrator, but I think that he gets used to it after a short while. I wonder why he picked this exact day to 'uncage' himself. Maybe he felt that the narrator was ready to be challenged with the ideas that they have been speaking about. Ishmael shows the narrator his timeline for the takers and leavers.

He goes on to tell the story of how the Takers began by demolishing everything in their paths, including the Leavers. He says that the story of Cain and Abel from the Bible isn't really supposed to be a story teaching morals and showing people what not to do. Instead, he says that it is the story told by the Leavers about how the Takers took over the land.

Abel represents the Leavers and Cain represents the Takers. Cain began killing Abel and watering his fields with Leaver blood. They started out with a small amount of land and after a short period of time, at least speaking evolutionary, they had spread throughout most of the land.

To me this was a very interesting idea. I had never thought about this story this way. I grew up in church and I had heard the story so many times I could probably recite it in my sleep. Now that I have seen it this way I see the connection to the history of man. I understand the narrator's confusion at first and his reaction to Ishmael telling him the story because I too reacted the same way.