Leiningen Versus the Ants

by Carl Stephenson

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Leiningen's Strategy and Ants' Military Tactics in "Leiningen Versus the Ants"

Summary:

In "Leiningen Versus the Ants," Leiningen defeats an army of intelligent, tactical ants by flooding his plantation, despite suffering severe injuries. The ants exhibit military precision and intelligence, using tactics like sacrificing themselves to form bridges and creating leaf rafts to cross water barriers. Leiningen initially believes his defenses and intellect will outsmart the ants, relying on his experience with natural disasters. However, the ants' coordinated and strategic maneuvers challenge his confidence, highlighting their surprising capabilities.

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How does Leiningen defeat the ants in "Leiningen Versus the Ants"?

When his farm faces an incredible army of flesh-eating ants, Leiningen defiantly wages war on them. The ants prove a formidable adversary, circumventing several physical hurdles that Leiningen places in their path. The ants find a way to bypass a moat, offering themselves as scarifies so that their fellow ants can use their dead bodies as a bridge. They retreat from the petrol until they can buy themselves much-needed time to recover. Later, they chop down leaves and use them as rafts to make their way across the currents surrounding Leiningen's property.

A couple of Leiningen's men become so hopeless that they attempt to escape through the ants; they are quickly covered in the vicious little beasts and, tormented, throw themselves into the river, where they are eaten by crocodiles and piranhas. For a moment, even Leiningen wonders if there is anything that can sweep "this devil's spawn back into the hell from which it came."

Leiningen realizes that if he can reach the wheel of the weir at the dam, he can unleash the force of the river onto his property; this would flood the basin full of ants yet spare his home and outbuildings. He realizes that he is the only one who has the grit to complete the task and informs his men of the plan.

Although Leniningen fully covers himself in clothing, mosquito goggles, and petrol-covered rags, the ants begin to cover him as soon as he leaps into their midst en route to the dam. He reaches the dam, successfully unleashes the force of the river, and floods the basin. By the time he returns to his men, Leiningen's flesh is chewed to the bone in places. Despite the great physical pain Leiningen endures, he is finally victorious over the ants.

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What demonstrates the ants' intelligence in "Leiningen Versus the Ants"?

The Brazilian official who comes to see Leiningen makes it clear that he believes the ants are more than a match for Leiningen. He describes them as "elemental," each one of them "a fiend from hell," suggesting that they are driven by pure devilry and will set upon devouring not only the plantation, but Leiningen himself. Initially, Leiningen dismisses this, believing that his brain will be enough to see off the ants.

Of course, he is proven wrong. Leiningen builds a "girdle of water" and thinks the ants will be unable to get through it unless they are able to build rafts. However, when he sees the ants approach in perfect formation, he begins to see that he may be wrong. The ant scouts report back to the others what is in their way—the water. The watchers imagine that there is some kind of "telepathy" at work among the ants, as they become more and more aware of the true situation and the shape of the horseshoe ditch. Every time the ants become more aware, they regroup. The ants dying in the water serve as stepping stones for others. They advance across the ditch like an army making a tactical advance.

At one point, Leiningen thinks he has won, but no—it seems that the ants actually can build their own rafts out of leaves. They are intelligent enough to learn from their initial failure and to think tactically of a different strategy. This is the sort of intelligence Leiningen had thought impossible from such creatures.

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In "Leiningen Versus the Ants," how does the author liken the ants' actions to military strategy?

Well done for observing this. Yes, one of the ways in which the author of this dramatic short story presents the ants as an unstoppable foe is through frequent comparisons to soldiers performing armed manoeuvres. For example, consider the way in which the ants are described as they come forward and approach the defences as they first arrive:

The hostile army was approaching in perfect formation; no human battalions, however well drilled, could ever hope to rival the precision of that advance. Along a front that moved forward as uniformly as a straight line, the ants drew nearer and nearer to the water ditch. Then, whey they learned through their scouts the nature of the obstacle, the two outlying wings of the army detached themselves from teh main body and marched down the western and eastern sides of the ditch.

Clearly, using such comparisons serves to emphasise the massive threat that this hoard of ants represents to Leningen and his men. They show that they are superior to even a human army in terms of their teamwork, discipline and how they work together, almost telepathically, to overcome the defences that are before them.

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How did the ants exhibit intelligence to overcome obstacles in “Leiningen Versus the Ants”?

The story “Leiningen Versus the Ants” raises questions about the relationship between instinct and intellect in the ants that swarm into the plantation. Leiningen is shown to be overly confident in human beings’ abilities to devise and implement an impenetrable defense. Instead, the ants can apparently think and plan ahead, not just function instinctively.

There are several examples of this seemingly logical reasoning. One occurs early in the story as a single large group of ants approaches the ditch, or weir. Rather than press forward in a single bloc, they split into two groups, each of which goes in a different direction. This complicates the humans’ defenses, as they had not expected to fight on two fronts.

Another instance pertains to the insects’ use of their fallen comrades as they continue their advance. The bodies of the dead ants become a means for the others to continue advancing, as the many bodies form a bridge over which the remaining ants can cross.

After the ants retreat and regroup, they apply technology in their next advance. Some ants chew leaves off the vines or lianas, allowing the leaves to fall to the ground. Their comrades below use the leaves like pallets, loading others onto them and carrying them forward.

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In Leiningen Versus the Ants, what makes Leiningen think he can outsmart the ants?

There are several reasons that Leiningen does not fear the approaching ant invasion, but all are based on an overconfidence in his own abilities.

First, Leiningen believes that he has "planned measures of defense" within the construction of the plantation that makes it rather invincible to the forces of nature. When a Brazilian official tries to get Leiningen to leave, Leiningen replies that he has already taken "into account all that conceivably happen to it" and he is "ready for anything...including [the] ants." When the ants approach, for example, they must first cross a twelve-foot water ditch that circles the plantation. There is also an "inner moat" which is lined with concrete; three petrol tanks stand ready to empty into this concrete moat if the first line of water defenses fail.

Second, Leiningen believes that he is able to harness his superior intelligence in ways that most men can't, and he expects that this will give him the upper hand against the ants. He insists that he's not just some "old woman" who might run from the challenge and that he plans to "use his intelligence" to emerge victorious in this battle. Consider the ways Leiningen alters his course of action as the ants get increasingly closer to the house; you should be able to use these examples as evidence of his intelligence.

Lastly, you might consider that Leiningen has faced other natural disasters before, such as droughts and floods, and he believes that he has the tenacity to face these ants, as well. He is not a "dullard" or a "sluggard" like some of his neighbors, and he believes that his success against natural disasters is within his own control because his "intelligence...makes [him] the master of his fate."

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