Mission Accomplished

The pupil, who I now believe to be the author of the book, has accomplished his mission not only as a student, but as a path through which the world can be saved. He has acquired what he needed to achieve in order to save the world from utter destruction. My studies aren’t as globally important as that, but I wish that some day, my knowledge will help many people have a better life. I think that when the student, Daniel Quinn (I believe), found out about the death of Ishmael, he thought about two choices he had: Cry and mop for the rest of the week or day or whatever, or simply accept the loss and be relieved that he learned what was intended. “What was to be done? Stand for a moment with the lowered gaze outside the county furnace where they cremate the roadkills? Someone else would have handled it differently, probably better, revealing a greater heart, a finer sensibility. Myself, I drove home.” (pg. 261)

I would have done exactly what he said he didn’t do. What he said others have done. Then again, I haven’t been on the journey of knowledge he has with Ishmael. Or, have I? In a way the reader is also the pupil because he understands and is present in every question, comment, and conclusion. Only at the end does the pupil’s personality emerge. It’s the time when you ask yourself as a reader what you would have done upon the discovery of Ishmael’s death. I have one question though… one I think I can answer myself. Why didn’t Ishmael tell the pupil, tell us, that he was dying of pneumonia? I mean, surely he knew. Maybe he was just happy that he had relieved the weight of knowledge of how to save the world off of his shoulders. Maybe he didn’t have any purpose more to live now that he had fulfilled his destiny, so to speak. We will never know for sure.

The real question is, as Ishmael’s pupils, what do we do now?