Character Analysis
This is the guy who starts the book with the words "Call me Ishmael," and then gets sucked into a white-whale chase.
Wait. Different Ishmael.
So this Ishmael's story is similar to Cesar's, but in a less showoff-y way. He's not big and intimidating (6.191), and he's not great at things like singing or even soccer (10.51), but Ishmael is intelligent and competent. The hostages and General Benjamin are impressed with his ability to take responsibility and learn new things (6.137), whether it's how to slice an eggplant (6.245) or how to play chess (8.79-80).
That makes him a hot commodity among the hostage folks. Simon Thibault is impressed with Ishmael's ability to take responsibility (6.137), Mr. Hosokawa plays chess with him (8.79), and Oscar Mendoza wants to offer him a job (9.142-146). Ruben Iglesias even wants to go through a legal adoption process and welcome Ishmael as his son (9.146).
It's like being the precocious youngster who solves calculus and plays the clarinet and whom everyone dotes on. Except that Ishmael is technically one of the captors and could kill any of his doters at a moment's notice. (But it's easy to forget about that. He's such a nice boy.)
Ishmael also has a pretty tragic background, having lost both his parents. His father was abducted by a group of men, no one knows who, and never seen again. His mother died of flu almost a year before the book is set. He's not even fifteen yet. It's possible Ishmael had few survival options besides joining the terrorists (6.191).
As with Cesar, all this emphasizes how tragic the ending is. Because Ishmael is becoming a respected part of the community inside the house, and because so many of the hostages recognize his intelligence and ability, the loss when all the terrorists are killed hits all the harder. If they hadn't gotten involved in terrorism through what were very likely desperate circumstances of poverty and injustice, all of the teenagers might have been able to become participating members of their society, maybe even making it a better place through more legitimate means.
Some of them, like Ishmael, might have found families, or returned to families they did have. Ishmael is another character through whom we see the tragic loss their experience represents personally and to their wider society.