Another obvious example of symbolism is the naming of the Leavers and Takers. Furthermore, Cain and Abel respectively represent the herding society of preindustrial life and the emerging, "Taker" agricultural culture. Ishmael also explicitly explains the significance of the names Eve and Adam. Adam is "man" whereas Eve is "life."Therefore, it was not Eve who brought about the "fall" of man, but the temptation of life for man.
Yet another interesting symbol in Ishmael is that of the world as a prison. In prisons, there are unspoken hierarchies. The world, and more specifically our cultures, are exactly the same. The person with the most influence (the most money) is at the top of the chain. This being said, Ishmael says that the prison industry is consuming the world. (252) A final symbol briefly mentioned is that of Nazis and the connection between their war propaganda and the Taker culture. (68)
The website in the back of the book (the author's way of telling people how they can help) talks all about indigenous people and how their rights are being taken away. This ties in with the "prison" symbol in Ishmael. Indigenous people have basically no money. They have little, hardly enough to survive. This puts them at the bottom of the hierarchy. The people on top of the hierarchy, however, require much more than the indigenous people to survive. They require more resources, most of which come from the third world countries in which the indigenous live. These people on the higher rungs of the social ladder "imprison" the indigenous, make them give up their culture, and force them to work in awful conditions to survive. They take the indigenous people's land and scrape every last resource out of it. Like Ishmael said, industries are imprisoning the world.
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