Chapter 11

As I read through the book, and get to pages 213 and 214 the book states a very interesting statement which I understood as a question. "That's what makes the story worth knowing?" Pg 213. Ishmael has told many stories throughout the book but I had never wondered what made his stories worth knowing. Stories might explain to you something that happened in the past, or something that is supposed to happen in the future. There are also many types of subjects for stories, and many ways to interpret. The story might be worh knowing and also might not be, depending on how yo take it. So, are all of Ishmaels stories worth knowing? I certainly do think so, they have a point of view and I think it is good to know different points of view on many subjects.

In this chapter Ishmael and the man discuss human life before and after the agricultural revolution, and compare the hunter-gatherer life, or Leavers to the other life or the Taker. First in page 220, the man says something very important about hunter life. "Because it's a struggle just to stay alive." Leaver life is really a struggle and in many ways different to Taker life. Then to keep explaining this point, they say on page 225: "If the drought is very bad, then we too dwindle." Here the conversation betwen the two characters leads you to something that for me was very important in the book. If you are a hunter, you depend on an enormous series of things to keep you alive. It can be the climate, the amount of animals available for you to hunt or as they state in the book a simple drought can kill you. After humans started the agricultural revolution, they were not dependant on what happened. "When you have more food than what you need, the gods have no power over you!" That was the difference between the Leavers and the Takers. "The Takers are those who know good and evil, and the Leavers are . . . ?" "The Leavers are those who live in the hands of the gods." Now all of this Leaver, Taker theory comes togethes and was helps you understand about the people who loved before and humanity as we know it today.

The humans have been able to find a way to only depend on theirselves and that is what have made humanity prosper so much. It is probably one of the biggest answers to how things came to be this way.