22 pages • 44 minutes read
Carl StephensonLeiningen Versus the Ants
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1938A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Rationalism Versus Nature
Stephenson uses Leiningen to valorize European rationalism and science which, in the 19th and early-20th centuries, were believed to be the keys to social advancement and the cures for any social ill. In contrast, the ants represent uncontrollable and unpredictable natural forces. The author uses the ants, which are capable and well-organized, to refute Leiningen’s single-minded view. Leiningen’s unwavering faith in rationalism was typical among men of his social standing at the time. By the end of the story, though Leiningen still believes that he and his values are superior to the ants’ aggressions, he is forced to acknowledge that he foolishly overestimated his ability to command his environment.
Western Science Versus Shamanism
Similar to Leiningen’s single-minded view in the ability to use rationalism to conquer nature is his view that science is superior to traditional shamanism and the indigenous people’s methods of practicing medicine. Stephenson uses the Indian medicine man to illustrate how ineffective and regressive shamanism supposedly is. Neither the anti-venom brew nor the salve that the shaman prepares are effective in protecting Leiningen from the ants. Instead, he wards off the vicious creatures through sheer will and mental focus. The only methods in the story that prove effective are those that Leiningen applies to ward off the ants—particularly, overflowing the water ditch with the river dam and using petrol as an insect repellant. Stephenson’s presentation of the shaman’s ineffectuality subtly reasserts the notion that Western science makes men like Leiningen capable in any setting, even more so than the indigenous people who have inhabited that environment for millennia.
A Man’s Place in Nature
The narrator emphasizes Leiningen’s masculinity and includes no female characters in the story to depict how men elevate the masculine qualities that they believe give them license to conquer and exploit the natural world. Although he is surrounded by indigenous workers—all of them male—Stephenson characterizes Leiningen as a man working alone against a willful and vicious natural force. He has only his education and intelligence to guide him in defeating the ants.
The author takes Leiningen through three phrases. First, he is the arrogant colonialist who assumes that he can withstand any threat within the environment. Then, he becomes a crusader against the ants, determined the defeat the evil that threatens him and his plantation. Finally, he is a nearly vanquished hero who returns to his men and his ranch after having nearly been eaten alive by the flesh-eating ants. The indigenous people, however, undergo no transformations and remain static throughout the story. They are passive in the face of the threat and act only when Leiningen tells them to, indicating that only the European man, in Stephenson’s view, has the mettle to act in the face of external threats. The story, therefore, reasserts ideas about the presumed moral superiority of the European man over women and non-white peoples, thereby making them seem best positioned to defeat savage forces within the natural world.
