Short Story Leiningen And The Ants

Leiningen And The Ants Leiningen And The Ants is basically a man versus nature war. Leiningen realizes that the ant population is very large, but he never gets the full picture that the ants population exceeds his expectations until. He comes across a field filled with ants covering twenty square miles headed to his territory. Leiningen then understands that all of not only his people but his home will be put to waste if he does not make a move. Leiningen is warned by the district commissioner that these ants are very dangerous. The commissioners beliefs are, that the ants will wipe out the whole plantation, and that Leiningen and his workers should sail away with him. What then makes this story exciting is that Leiningen's pride and ego gets the best of him as soon as the thought crosses his mind of, how it took him three years to build up his plantation and how his four-hundred helped put it together. So then Leiningen has to come up with ideas of how he will defeat the ants. One can believe that he may put together the strategies of when he fought through droughts, floods, and many more dangers that have crossed him. Leiningen soon comes up with an idea where he will set fire to the perimeter of his plantation, Leiningen is very …show more content…
So Leiningen then exclaims to his workers that he will have to destroy the dam and let the water kill the ants. Leiningen then leaves his plantation and heads for the dam. He soon trips and falls and is almost covered in ants. Leiningen understands that he cannot let anyone down and that he cannot go out like a coward so Leiningen's pride gets the best of him and he gets up, runs, and jumps into the stream. When Leiningen washes off all the ants he destroys the dam and has to make a run back to his