Quinn's Ishmael: Mistakes of Mankind and Their Affect on the Human History Most humans are confused. Some know what the problem is, but most haven't even realized something is wrong. The novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is an attempt to bring about awareness of the mistakes that people have made and have continued to repeat through the course of human history. At its core, the story has two main characters: a teacher and a student. The teacher represents a solution to the destructive road that mankind has been traveling down and the student