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My Ishmael Book Report

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My Ishmael Book Report
My Ishmael is a novel written by Daniel Quinn. The book starts with Julie Gerchak, a twelve year old girl who wants a new life. It’s 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia where she believes our world has gotten to its worst because of what has happened to her . Her mom is dysfunctional and an alcoholic. Her dad isn't there with her and she has gotten used to living on her own. One day, Julie coincidentally notices an ad in the paper in search for pupils with “an earnest desire to save the world.”
So, she takes foot to the Fairfield Building, room 105. Eventually Julie and Ishmael, a silverback gorilla, have long talks week after week about old fables, stories about the current state of planet earth, and just about anything in general. This then strikes a match in her brain, that she really wants to save the world. But just as anyone would think this would be anything but easy, especially with Alan Lomax in the way who is horribly attached to Ishmael and his past teachings. A moral that many have most likely come across is that no matter how age you are, you can make a change in the world. When
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The central conflict is the problems in Julie’s time. Julie Gerchak is the protagonist of this novel. Julie was trying to better the world. Alan Lomax and the close to impossible problems in the world were the antagonists. A somewhat regular topic was a Person vs. Person literary conflict, Alan Lomax vs. Julie Gerchak. “The dork wasn’t afraid.” (page 11) although this happened long ago in the novel Julie carried out her hatred for Alan Lomax throughout the her experience with Ishmael. Watching Julie grow more mature and understandable throughout the book was really quite amazing. Near the end of the novel Julie was more open minded and more intellectual than how she first started out at the

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