Chapter 7 Summary

Ishmael has the narrator imagine himself in an isolated city amidst good people, who claim things have always been peaceful and happy. He stays with them and enjoys their food until he learns it is "B meat" - the flesh of their neighbors. He is horrified but is assured the B's eat their neighbors, the C's, and the C's the A's, and all is democratic and friendly. Baffled, he calls this lawless, but they insist they have a law, follow it invariably, and it has ensured their way of life from the beginning. How can one discover the law without asking them? The narrator proposes observing them over a long period, watching for what 1) makes society work and 2) what the people never do that helps make it work. Encouraged, Ishmael allows a hypothetical execution as a penalty for breaking the law, and puts...