Leiningen Versus the Ants

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"Leiningen Versus the Ants" is a classic short story written in 1947 by Carl Stephenson. It was adapted the following year into a radio play. It was further adapted in 1954 by Ranald MacDougall and Ben Maddow into a film entitled The Naked Jungle. The story also served as the framework for an episode of the Richard Dean Anderson television series, MacGyver. The episode in question is the sixth episode of season one, "Trumbo's World."

[edit] Plot

The story centers on a scrappy, no-nonsense plantation owner called Leiningen (his first name is never mentioned in the story), and his stubborn refusal to abandon his plantation in the face of an onrushing disaster. In this case, the disaster is "an elemental--an act of God! Ten miles long, two miles wide--ants, nothing but ants!" Moreover, each ant is approximately the size of a man's thumb, and out to consume anything and everything organic that falls in its path.

The action is set "in the Brazilian wilderness," where Leiningen (who is ambiguously referred to as one of several "settlers" in the area) owns a large plantation. It is never specified what crops the plantation grows, but Leiningen employs more than four-hundred laborers and has brought the plantation to high success through his planning, intelligence, know-how and reasoned approach to problem solving. The story, as well as Leiningen himself, stress on several occasions the crucial role that human intelligence and ingenuity play in problem solving and, by extension, all human successes.

Unlike his fellow settlers, all of whom have either fled or are preparing to flee, Leiningen is not about to give up years of hard work and planning to "an act of God." He assembles his workers, who are all or mostly Indians, and informs them of the inbound horror. Though the natives are a naturally superstitious and frightened lot, their respect for and trust in Leiningen enables them to remain calm and determined: "The ants were indeed mighty, but not so mighty as the boss." Later in the story, despite suffering setbacks and being given an offer of dismissal with full pay, none of the laborers deserts Leiningen.

Much of the rest of the story is taken up with the days-long struggle in which Leiningen attempts to hold off the huge swath of ants. He uses an ingenious system of levees, moats and "decoy" fields to keep the ants at bay. For example, he draws off some of the ants to a valueless fallow field, while keeping a large portion of the others off of the central compound with a system of defensive canals. The ants are initially unable to cross over, but soon manage to build bridges on the bodies of ants who mindlessly sacrifice themselves to the waters. As the bridges of ant corpses begins to reach the near side of the canals, Leiningen opens a series of sluice gates, greatly increasing the flow of water, and washing away the prior ant bridges. He also employs gasoline and other petroleum flammables to great effect; the chemicals not only burn the ants when ignited, but also interfere with their chemically-based tracking and sensory organs.

The denouement occurs when, after days of hard fighting, the ants have forced Leiningen and his remaining workers back to the last line of defense. However, Leiningen has also managed to make a rather large dent in the ant population. Nevertheless, there are still more than enough ants to annihilate Leiningen and what's left of his plantation. Finally, this last group manages to breach Leiningen's last defenses, and all seems lost. Then, it occurs to him that his original principle of canals and damming could be put to use on a large scale to finally repel the remaining ants. If he dams entirely the main river itself (a possibility due to large constructs that have already been put in place), he realizes that the whole plantation would flood, drowning all the ants. He and his men could take refuge in the heights of the manor house, which is on a hill. However, this plan would require reaching the dam itself, which had long been overrun by the ants.

Resolving that he won't go down without knowing that he did all he possibly could, Leiningen puts on a makeshift protective suit, douses himself with gasoline, picks up two spray cans of the same, and decides to make a run for the dam -- through the ants. Despite suffering horrible injuries, including ant bites to the inside of his nose and directly below his eyes, Leiningen makes it to the dam controls, and manages to flood the plantation. This means the death of his entire year's crop and a return to square one, but it will also save the lives of his men and destroy the menace of the ants for everyone else.

[edit] Interpretation

The story can work on several levels. On the surface, it is merely an exciting adventure tale. A man is confronted by a phantom menace and must use his ingenuity to overcome it and protect his property, his employees and his way of life.

On another level, the story works a classic man-versus-nature or even man-versus-machine epic. On the one hand, the reader is presented with an unstoppable, ineffable juggernaut in the ants. On the other, he is presented with a simple, everyday individual who doesn't have any super powers or special abilities. Yet the man is able to use the best things about humanity: determination, ingenuity, cleverness, leadership, self-sacrifice, etc. to overcome even the most formidable weapons of a larger force, even nature itself.

Also, the story can be viewed as an anti-Communist parable. The mindless hordes of "workers," i.e., the ants, square off against the archetypal "rugged individualist" in Leiningen. The ants seek to "distribute" whatever they can get their hands on among themselves, whereas Leiningen's primary goal is the protection of his private property rights. Moreover, Leiningen is a powerful symbol of leadership and indiviudal achievement, who inspires his men to a great degree. The ants are led by a hive-mind mentality and have no leadership or even the capability of such.

Finally, the story has some elements of science fiction. While there is nothing directly contained in the text that forces such an interpretation, Stephenson does include several allusions to the effect that the world of the story does not take place on quotidian, 1947 Earth. For example, Leiningen at one point refers to his victory over some "Saurians," and the entire idea of him being one of several foreign "settlers" in Brazil suggests an alternate world. Though it should be mentioned that "saurian" is also a term used for lizards and foreign entrepraneurs are not unheard of in Brazil and the story mentions Leinigen's "European brain".