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Leiningen Versus The Ants Essay

Decent Essays

Leiningen Versus The Ants

Would you risk your own life and the lives of another 400 people just so you might have a chance at saving a coffee plantation? Well that’s what Leiningen did in the short story “Leiningen Versus the Ants”. And by doing so he has proved himself to be an over confident, persuasive, and sexist man. And is not a person to be admired.

In this story Leiningen has shown himself as an extremely over confident person. From the time he was aware of the impending danger of the ants, to when he was almost willing to give it all up he still believed that he could conquer them. This is show on the very first page of the story where Leiningen says “Decent of you, paddling all this way just to give me the tip. But you’re …show more content…

This is shown when he says, “Well, lads, we’ve lost the first round. But we’ll smash the beggars yet, don’t you worry. Anyone who thinks otherwise can draw his pay here and now and push off. There are rafts enough and to spare on the river and plenty of time to still reach ‘em.” The choice was all theirs, but they were bought into the fact of security and higher wages if they stayed with Leiningen, and that was good enough for the peons.

And the last major characteristic that was apparent was that Leiningen was a sexist man. In the beginning of the story he stated, “Act of God, my eye! Anyway, I’m not an old woman; I’m not going to run for it just because an elemental’s on the way.” And he later said, “Critical situations first become crises, when oxen or women get excited.” These two statements show that Leiningen thinks of himself to be more important that any woman or beast. He believes that he is helping the situation by sending the oxen and women away, but by today’s standards he is being sexist by degrading women with his remarks, and excluding them from the fight where they could have been very useful.

Through these three characteristics, Leiningen has been proven to be an over all ‘normal’ person according to today’s society. He believes himself to be powerful, and in control that most people like to believe they are. He is

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