Answer:
After the latest lesson, the narrator leaves Ishmael to find Ishmael’s owner. He tells the owner, a man named Art Owens, that he’s interested in buying Ishmael. Owens says that he’ll sell Ishmael for three thousand dollars. Together, they haggle the price down to two thousand. The narrator says he’ll think about it.
It’s worth remembering how passive and cynical the narrator was at the beginning of the novel. Now, he’s going out of his way to free Ishmael from his cage—even though he doesn’t follow through with the final step right away. Perhaps the narrator is still hesitant to “put his money where his mouth is”—to live according to Ishmael’s teachings instead of simply agreeing with them.
ACTIVE THEMES
Interconnectedness Theme Icon Cynicism, Misanthropy, and the Failure of the 1960s Theme Icon Imprisonment Theme Icon
On Friday night, the narrator returns to the carnival. After bribing the bribee, he greets Ishmael, eager for another lesson. Ishmael asks the narrator to come back tomorrow, but the narrator says that tomorrow is Saturday—the carnival will surely be too crowded. With this in mind, Ishmael reluctantly agrees to proceed.
In spite of his (understandable) reluctance to live out the difficult reality of Ishmael’s teachings, the narrator still goes out of his way to learn more from Ishmael, gradually taking more and more motivated action.
ACTIVE THEMES
Education, Teaching, and Prophets Theme Icon Interconnectedness Theme Icon Cynicism, Misanthropy, and the Failure of the 1960s Theme Icon Imprisonment Theme Icon
Ishmnd what to think. Yet it’s crucial to realize that even here, Ishmael isn’t dogmatic in the least. He has his own opinions about how to live life as a Leaver, but he’s clear about the fact that they are only opinions. Indeed, the overarching message of his speech is that the narrator (and millions like him) have to use their own ingenuity and inventiveness to solve the problems of the world—they can’t rely on gorillas to do so for them. Here Quinn basically admits that Ishmael is meant to be a teaching tool, designed to spread Leaver ideas around the world.
Explanation:
