Leiningen Versus the Ants Assignment

Everett Robinson 9-31

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro

Definitions

Conflicts

Stag Scene

Attacks vrs. Defences

Ironic Outcome

Crossword

Conflicts
The story Leiningen Versus the Ants contains all three of the different types of conflict, however, the predominant conflict is man versus environment. The primary conflict is Man versus his environment because the majority of the story is about Leiningen pitting himself against the ants. Most of this conflict is physical as the men defend the plantation and when Leiningen is attacked at the weir. Hardly had he seized it when a horde of infuriated ants flowed over his hands, arms and shoulders. He started the wheel--before it turned once on its axis the swarm covered his face. Leiningen strained like a madman, his lips pressed tight; if he opened them to draw breath. . . . Leiningen also wages a mental battle against the ants. Even here, in this Brazilian wilderness, his brain had triumphed over every difficulty and danger it had so far encountered. First he had vanquished primal forces by cunning and organization, then he had enlisted the resources of modern science to increase miraculously the yield of his plantation. And now he was sure he would prove more than a match for the "irresistible" ants. The next most common element of conflict within the story is Man versus himself, but it is not as prevalent as the main conflict. Hadn't this brain for once taken on more than it could manage? If the blighters decided to rush the ditch, fill it to the brim with their corpses, there'd still be more than enough to destroy every trace of that cranium of his. The planter's chin jutted; they hadn't got him yet, and he'd see to it they never would. While he could think at all, he'd flout both death and the devil. Although the conflict is there, Leiningen resolves it quickly by reassuring himself of his capabilities and resumes his fight with the ants. The least of the conflicts within the story is man versus man when Leiningen has his brief argument with the District Commissioner. The Brazilian rose heavily to his feet. "I've done my best," he gasped. "Your obstinacy endangers not only yourself, but the lives of your four hundred workers. You don't know these ants!" Leiningen dispatches with the Brazilian official and his own self doubts rather quickly, leaving the battle with the ants as the focus of most of the conflict in the story.