67 pages • 2 hours read
Daniel QuinnA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Ishmael asks the narrator why he wants to know the Leavers’ story, and the narrator says it is something he feels he should know. Ishmael does not accept that reasoning, saying that although he wants to teach the Leavers’ story, he does not want to teach it just to satisfy the narrator’s curiosity. Finally, the narrator says that the Takers’ story is important because it tells people what not to do, but they cannot just abandon their story, since they need a new story to enact instead. The Leavers’ story, then, is a story that people could adopt instead of the Takers’.
Ishmael notes that humanity adopted a story to enact, but he asks how humanity became humanity more broadly. The narrator does not see a way to answer that question, so Ishmael tells him to keep it in mind as they proceed through the next lesson.