The Denouement Ch. 13

I can't find the words to describe what I'm feeling, or how much time it took me to write the couple of them I could manage to type. Finally when he decides a plan to rescue Ishmael in the carnival( not really a plan he, is a very spontaneous man), when he arrives there, all he sees is the ground. The carnival had moved on. He asked his bribee, what had happened. This a devastating moment in the story. Ishmael was dead. He had died of pneumonia that night. "Are you telling me that he's. . . dead?" "Dead is what he is , pardner." (pg. 261). So at last our teacher perished. He asked were his body was taken, and the answer was, to the county, were they cremate the roadkills. This is no honorable way to end the physical part of a wise "man" like this. But that was it. He made his way back home, and framed the poster that he had picked up at the carnival (that was from Ishmael's ), and framed it, to see that there were two sides of the poster (would it be only of the poster...). "WITH MAN GONE WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR GORILLA?" "WITH GORILLA GONE WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR MAN?" (pg 262, 263) This to me is the most important phrase in the book. Before I finished the book, my idea of this words, was that the only way for the other species to survive (not only gorillas), man has to die, so it won't do any more harm, and the world can flourish again. And the other side; for man to survive every species has to die, so it can consume the whole world ( what is or will be left of it), and that way satisfy itself. And eventually also die for the lack of resources, and harsh conditions on Earth. But... Man could not live without animals, he would also perish, we need them to survive, but on the contrary they don' need us, they can live on their own, and actually live better than with us around. So it is a tough statement... 

But now that I've just finished the novel (but had enough time to digest it), I can interpret those words in another way (without omitting the previous analysis). The knot, the relationship that Ishmael and the man created, could have been a reason for this poster, and it was meant for the man to find it (even thought the poster was there before the man and his relationship,but maybe it was meant to happen this way, and Ishmael knew this, and so the poster can exist in the hands of this man, this way). So the question this poster asks in my point of view (my second point of view) is that if the man disappears from Ishmael's life, will the gorilla be able to cope with this? (maybe he couldn't cope because when he finished teaching the man everything he knew, they had to separate since there was nothing else to say, and so Ishmael couldn't manage not being with his friend, with whom he was  untroubled, and liked teaching him.) Or if the gorilla is gone will this man be able bear with this?(we don't know since the story ends with these quotations, but he seemed all right). But this is something we will never know, even though we wished we could, and so is left this magnificent story full of knowledge, in utter suspense, as any great novel is left, for someone to continue, or just for the sake of it.