Takers or Leavers Chapter 11

Ishmael is not well. He has a different mood than the other days. But he is not to be blamed. The narrator is insisting on learning the story about the Leavers. But Ishmael is just not into telling it, since the narrator cant give a keen excuse to learn it, he just wants it. 

The true point is that he is questioning himself what made us follow the life of Takers from Leavers. I prefer the life I live in right now; but why? Because I'm used to it, and don't know anything else. The point of this whole chapter is to know which one is best and why. So Leavers can be better since they have no worries, they just enjoy the landscape without any guilt. They can't loose their job and starve to death since they have no jobs; its just free life. But as gatherers, they can't really know their destiny, their life's are based on if there is food or not. They don't grow any, (that is the difference: Takers are marked by agriculture; by looking ahead, Leavers just live life as it comes) so they have to hunt. And if there's no deer today, then its rabbit, but if there's no rabbit, then they have to find something else, but why settle? Why be a conformist? "Unless you control your food supply, you live at the mercy of the world. It doesn't matter that there's always been enough... You can't live at the whim of the gods"(pg.224). Takers instead have total control of their life, but at the same time are trapped in the civilization, that by the way is rushing down. But if you can grow more than you need, then the gods won't have power over you, and this is the whole point. "that is the whole goddamn point! When you have more food than you need, then the gods have no power over you!"(pg 227). This way, you will never row hungry, and so today, it is not you're turn to die. "What the gods provide is enough for your life as animals, I grant you that. But for your life as humans, you must provide."(pg 226). "So. We have a new pair of names for you . 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."(pg. 229). I finally come to understanding that today anyone can be a Taker or  a Leaver, its just a matter of how you prefer you're life to be, and if you're going to take over it, or if its going to take over you....