Since Guns, Germs, and Steel is a work of historical nonfiction, it doesn’t have many symbols. Still, Diamond writes in a conversational style, often using specific events from his life as jumping-off points to talk about weighty scientific ideas. At the beginning of the novel, Diamond describes meeting a charismatic New Guinean politician named Yali, who asked him, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo … but we black people had little cargo of our own?” Yali’s question arguably symbolizes the basic problem that Diamond’s book tries to solve: how certain societies, particularly Western, European societies, came to be so technologically and economically powerful while other societies did not.
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Yali’s question Symbol Timeline in Guns, Germs, and Steel
The timeline below shows where the symbol Yali’s question appears in Guns, Germs, and Steel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue: Yali’s Question
...just as intelligent as Europeans, even if they had to deal with colonists’ racism. Yali’s question for Diamond is: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo …...
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Yali’s question references the inequalities between different civilizations. Some civilizations, such as those in Europe and Eastern...
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There have been many attempts to answer Yali’s question before Diamond. For centuries, people believed that Europeans conquered the rest of the world because...
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Another famous answer to Yali’s question: civilizations that arose near rivers become more successful over time. Many of the earliest civilizations...
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...a “synthesis” of these specialists’ work: he will give a big, overarching answer to Yali’s question. Diamond then gives a thesis statement for his book: “History followed different courses for different...
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Epilogue: The Future of Human History as Science
Diamond now returns to the question Yali asked (the question brought up at the beginning of the book): “Why is it...
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A partial answer to this question is that the Fertile Crescent lost its geographic advantages over time. As it entered the...
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