Essay Questions

What is the meaning of the name of Ishmael and how does it contribute to the themes of the book?

While a great many people may only be familiar with the name Ishmael from the narrator of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, it is an ancient name that traces back to the Book of Genesis in the Bible. In both its scriptural origination as well as Melville’s epic about the white whale, the meaning of the name is thematically resonant. That meaning is “God will hear” or, as it is sometimes expressed, “God hears.” Although there is just the slightest variation in semantic meaning between the two, the primary idea remains the same: Ishmael is to be seen as a figure of fable who is tasked with the purpose of instructing a very specific moral about surviving hardship through faith. This thematic aspect of the name also applies directly to both Ishmael and his modern-day equivalent Sam in this novel.

What minor advancement in reducing the emotional turmoil Sam feels toward his father does he confess to on Halloween?

Sam is understandably upset when his father packs up and moves to a new home to start fresh with his new family. Earlier, before Halloween is marked by the presence of his mother wandering about his apartment like a ghost, Sam utilizes a richly resonant metaphor to describe his domestic situation by comparing his father’s leaving to puncturing a balloon so that all the air escapes, leaving little for breathing, for merely existing. And then the word, italicized in the text, becomes too much too keep inside his mouth: “Bastard.” At first, he apologizes to God for thinking this, then just as quickly decides to take back his sorry. As his mother makes her ghostly movement from room to room, Sam can locate just one singular note of positivity and optimism about the distant future: “I went a whole day without curing his name.”

What does this novel remind us about the “traditional values” based upon Judeo-Christian precepts?

When evangelical conservatives go on and about returning American to the “greatness” of a time in the past when laws and morals were based upon “traditional values” the values they are referring to are distinctly those viewed through the rose-colored glasses of a nostalgically innocent and ignorant view of biblical values. Abraham is truly one of the titans of the Old Testament; Christianity, Judaism and Islam all refer to deity as “the God of Abraham.” As such, one would that the story of Abraham and his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, would be nothing less than a iconic vision of the nuclear family. In reality, the story of these two children is one which celebrates the distinctly non-traditional concepts of surrogate motherhood, infidelity, and slavery. When placed in modern day context, this entire story would, of course, be taught in evangelical churches as an abject lesson in the failure of secular radical liberalism.