Summary It 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 are 1) do not exterminate your competition for food; 2) do not destroy your competitors’ food supply in […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 8: Sections 1-6Summary and Analysis Part 7
Summary Ishmael invites the narrator to imagine himself in a foreign land where everyone is happy and peaceable. The people he visits, the C’s, explain that they eat their neighbors (the B’s), and the B’s eat the next people over (the A’s), and the A’s eat the C’s. Ishmael says […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 7Summary and Analysis Part 6
Summary Ishmael greets the narrator playfully the next day, wondering if he’s excited about the discoveries they’ll make. Ishmael begins by making a parallel between Taker culture and the first aeronauts. He says that aeronauts tried to fly before understanding the law of aerodynamics, but that nonetheless the law of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 6Summary and Analysis Part 5
Summary The next day, Ishmael and his student try to figure out the end of the story. First, Ishmael has the narrator review the story so far; in doing so, the narrator is able to continue it. He says that while man has been put on Earth to conquer it, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 5Summary and Analysis Part 4
Summary The narrator returns to Ishmael’s office ready to explain the middle and end of the story of Taker culture. He says the middle of the story is humankind’s time as hunter-gatherers, a time when they were living much as other animals do. But, for humankind to achieve its destiny, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 4Summary and Analysis Part 3
Summary The narrator arrives at Ishmael’s office and notices a tape recorder on the single chair in the room. Ishmael tells him he wants to record the narrator’s creation myth. The narrator insists it’s not a myth; Ishmael tells him to just tell his story. The narrator goes on to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 3Summary and Analysis Part 2
Summary Ishmael explains that Mr. Sokolow was obsessed with studying Nazi Germany and tells the narrator that the key to Hitler’s success was his ability to tell a story and have people believe it. The German people suffered so much after World War I that they were hungry to believe […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 2Summary and Analysis Part 1: Sections 5-8
Summary Ishmael becomes the young Rachel’s mentor, and they form a strong bond as he’s able to communicate with her telepathically as well. With his guidance and instruction, she excels in school. When her father dies, Rachel becomes Ishmael’s guardian, much to the chagrin of her mother, who has always […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Sections 5-8Summary and Analysis Part 1: Sections 1-4
Summary The narrator throws his newspaper out in a huff, but after a few minutes, rescues it from the trash bin. He’s upset by an advertisement placed by a teacher looking for a student interested in saving the world. Mostly, he’s annoyed because he spent years of his idealistic youth […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Sections 1-4Character List and Analysis Minor Characters
Walter Sokolow Walter Sokolow rescues Ishmael from a traveling carnival and helps him educate himself and serves as his first true friend. Rachel Sokolow Ishmael’s caretaker after her father’s (Walter) death, she dies shortly before the narrator comes to know Ishmael. Mr. Partridge Walter Sokolow’s butler, who still cares for […]
Read more Character List and Analysis Minor Characters