Moby’s Revenge
The book begins with an opening line that seems to be a sly little ironic nod to Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Ishmael is a character that literally traces back to the genesis of mankind, if you believe in biblical creationism. The name is more famously associated with some for being the narrator of Moby-Dick who introduces himself in the novel’s famous opening line: “Call me Ishmael.” By contrast, note the ironic wink and nod of Ishmael’s opening line of this book:
“He calls himself my father.”
Life, It’s a Shame
Right from the beginning, Ishmael is portrayed as something of fatalist. Though, of course, it must be admitted, a fatalist with an unquestioned belief in God. Still, his faith is tinged with an ironic fatalist perspective:
“How did I get here
at the edge of the desert,
at the edge of tomorrows
as pale as the sand?
Oh, yes!
I was born.”
Faith
Ishmael’s father is presented as the bedrock of faith in God. It is unwavering and true, even to the point of eventually being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac in order to prove his faith. There is an ironic catch here, of course, as it relates to Abraham’s shatter-proof faith in God: it is far easier to have faith in God when the deity actually deigns to personally converse with you rather than remaining a distant, uninvolved figure of unproven myth.
Hypocrisy
The modern-day parallel to the biblical story of Ishmael is a portrait of a broken African American home characterized by a suddenly absent father that conservative clingers to “traditional values” love to point to as evidence of the failure secular morality. The great irony is that the story in this book which presents a portrait of those “traditional values” is actually one characterized by non-traditional familial elements like surrogacy, sexually messing around with “the help” and blended families.
Brotherly Love
Ishmael and Sam are twinned across time and space just like their half-brothers Isaac and David. Both older sons view themselves as being rejected by their respective fathers in favor of the new kid in town. It would be only natural, of course, for the emotional outcome here to be negative emotional aimed from older brother to young usurper. Ironically—perhaps, perhaps not so much—both Ishmael and Sam come to adore their respective little brothers.
