5. LEARNING COMPETENCY
Explains how the elements specific to a genre
contribute to the theme of a Literary Selection.
CODE: EN10LT-IVB-2.2
OBJECTIVES
A. Identify the different elements of a story in the
selection.
B. Relates the moral of the story: Teamwork to their
real life experiences.
C. Construct a short takeaway from the story.
8. Carl Stephenson
Was born in Vienna,
Austria and raised in Germany.
His work “Leiningen Versus The
Ants” was also produced in radio
and film. For some, Stephenson
not being an American was a big
surprise. Few know that he lived
in Austria and Germany all his
life.
9. Carl Stephenson
Stephenson's death is
sometimes given as 1954, but
this is apparently due to
confusion with the historian Carl
Stephenson. Works by, or edited
by, Carl Stephenson were
published in eight different years
in the period from 1954 to 1967,
indicating his death was almost
certainly after 1954.
10. Inspirations for Stephenson’s Works
1. Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und
Denker (The Country of Poets and Thinkers)
2. The fairytales collected and published by Jacob and
Wilhelm Grimm of Germany in the 19th Century became
famous throughout the world.
3. Germany claims some of the most renowned classical
composers of the world including Bach and Beethoven.
4. Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press,
came from Germany.
12. 1.) Characters
1. Leiningen (Dynamic)
• Tough guy
• Owns a huge plantation in Brazil
• A problem solver; constantly trying to out-smart ants
2. Ants (Static/Flat)
• Millions of ants (10 miles wide, 2 miles deep)
• Threaten Leiningen’s plantation
• Destroy and kill everything in its path
3. Peons/Workers (Static/Flat)
• Good workers, loyal to Leiningen
• Not the smartest, no real imagination
4. The Commissioner (Static/Flat)
• Warns Leiningen of the upcoming threat
13. 2.) Setting
• Time: Past
• Specific Time: Summer
• Place: Plantation in Brazil
14. 3.) Themes
1. Surviving Nature
• Survival to extreme nature
2. Teamwork/Camaraderie
• Teamwork makes the dream work
15. 4.) Conflicts
1. Man vs. Man
• Leiningen vs The Commissioner
2. Man vs. Nature
• Leiningen vs The Army Ants
3. Man vs. Self
• Inner Thoughts
18. 1. The following are characteristics of Leiningen
EXCEPT
A. Tough guy
B. Owns a huge plantation in Brazil
C. Frail/Weak
D. Problem Solver
19. 2. The following are characteristics of the Ants
EXCEPT
A. Millions of ants (10 miles wide, 2 miles deep)
B. Dynamic character
C. Threaten Leiningen’s plantation
D. Destroy and kill everything in its path
20. 3. TRUE or FALSE: The setting of the story Leiningen
versus The Ants took place at Sao Paolo, Brazil.
21. 4. What was Leiningen’s first line of defense
against the Army Ants?
A. Weir, Dam, and Moat
B. Petrol
C. Creating waves through a shovel/spade
D. Holocaust
22. 5. What was the Army Ants’ response to
Leiningen’s first line of defense?
A. Avoided the plantation
B. Called Antman for backup
C. Bites one of the Peons/Workers
D. Crossed by letting ones who have drowned
act as stepping stones
23. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
The owner of a Brazilian plantation,
Leiningen, listens to an agitated District
Commissioner warn him about an approaching
army of ants, “every single one . . . a fiend from
hell.” When Leiningen is adamant that he will not
abandon his land, so official throws up his arms,
insisting that the plantation owner does not
understand that the ants are an elemental force,
an act of God. Nevertheless, certain that he will
prove more than a match for the “irresistible”
ants, Leiningen contends that he will defeat this
elemental force with his intelligence.
24. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
After the commissioner's departure, Leiningen
assembles his loyal and trusting men and informs them of the
advancing ants. At noon on the second day, their approach is
announced by a terrorized stampede of all sorts of animals
including jaguars and pumas, tapirs, monkeys, rodents,
snakes, and lizards.
At the end near the house and outbuildings,
Leiningen has had a weir, or dam, constructed to divert the
water. And while the ditch seems to be adequate security,
Leiningen still exercises precautions such as moving the cattle
and transporting the women and children to the compound of
houses and outbuildings. Then he checks the inner moat, a
smaller ditch in which pipes of petrol can flow.
25. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
As he surveys his property, Leiningen discerns “the darkening
hem” that mows the countryside. The workers scream and curse,
then relapse into silence. Even Leiningen hesitates, but he vows
to fight both “death and the devil” as the hostile army of ants
marches toward him.
Having reached the ditch, the ants break into two wings
expecting to find a place to cross, an action that indicates their
thinking abilities. After the ants reach the end of the ditch, they
somehow communicate to the southern front.
Leiningen hopes that they may be persuaded to withdraw from
his plantation. However, the ants cross by letting ones who have
drowned act as stepping stones for the others. Fortunately, not
all attempt to cross at once. Still, Leiningen feels the threat of a
gruesome death.
26. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
He sends one of his herdsmen to the weir to have the river
dammed more strongly. To increase the speed and power of the
water coming into the ditch, a second peon is sent to bring
spades and petrol sprinklers; a third is sent to the point of the
offensive.
By the time reinforcements reach Leiningen, the ants are halfway
over. As the war between the “act of God” and Leningen’s brain
reaches its climax, the peons dig up to the edge of the bank,
hurling dirt and sand into the midst of the hostile ants.
The ants' offensive is to attack with an ever-widening front, an
action that poses an overwhelming danger to the limited number
of men. When one man does not draw his shovel back quickly
enough, the wooden handle swarms with scurrying insects that
cover his body. Screaming, the frantic peon writhes in pain.
27. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
In an effort to control the situation, Leiningen shouts, “Into the
petrol, idiot! Douse your paws in the petrol.” While others attend
to him, an old Indian medicine man gives him a drink he
prepared before.
Distracted by the men's actions, some of the ants turn away from
the ditch. Eventually, Leiningen's plan of flooding the ditches
works, carrying off masses of ants who scurry up the slope to
safety.
While this retreat causes the Indians to celebrate, Leiningen
remains unmoved because he knows the return of the ants after
dawn is probable. So he has his men camp along the bank for the
night while others patrol the ditch with headlights from vehicles
and electric torches.
28. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
At dawn a rested Leiningen rides along the edge of the ditch, viewing
a "throng of beseigers." As he studies the wide, swift-flowing passage
of water between the ants and the plantation, Leiningen believes the
battle is nearly over. But as he rides along the eastern and southern
sections of the ditch, he discovers that the ants are gnawing through
the stalks of lianas, dropping leaves steadily onto the ground.
Leiningen feels a sense of foreboding as the ants use leaves to carry
other ants across the ditches. And when he observes a pampas stag
blinded and reeling from the torture of a thousand ants, Leiningen
realizes with horror that he, too, could suffer the same fate.
Although resolved to send the "vermin back to hell," Leiningen knows
now that he has underestimated his enemy and that danger lies at the
point of the western section of the ditch turning southward where the
power of the current has put the leaves so close to each other that
the ants' bridge is almost ready.
29. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
He orders a man at the weir to repeatedly lower the water almost to
the point that it is gone and then suddenly let the river in to drown
masses of ants that enter the ditch. This tactic foils the almost-
completed fording of the ditch just in time. Nevertheless, it flings
hoards of ants onto the Indians, presaging disaster as a sweating
peon shouts, "They're over!"
Wasting no time, Leiningen fires three shots as a signal for the second
line of defense. Petrol is sent to the concrete trench circling the house
and its outbuildings.
Perceiving that the men are losing hope, Leiningen offers to pay them
and send them out on rafts. Yet not a man moves. So their patron
orders them to dine while the wall of petrol holds the ants back. At
twilight, sentries are posted as Leiningen retires to bed, planning how
he will recultivate after the ordeal is over.
30. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
Morning finds Leiningen viewing the devastation that a black
throng of ants made upon his plantation. Still, their hunger is
not satiated; they are headed for the house. To cross the
petrol trench, the ants collect shreds of bark, twigs, and dried
leaves along with the tamarind leaves used as rafts before.
After his men fill the petrol ditch, Leiningen orders them
back, drops a stone to reveal a patch of petrol, and strikes a
match; suddenly a towering wall of fire encompasses the
garrison as the Indians shout with glee.
Despite this great defeat, the ants persevere. As petrol flows
into the second tank, the ants march forward again; again
they are burned. A third time, and the ants still continue
coming as something blocks the flow of petrol into the ditch.
31. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
Seeing the approaching ants, the peons' nerves begin to break and
they leap over the north side of the petrol trench; there they are
covered by the enemy from head to foot. In their agony, the men fall
into the river, where crocodiles and piranhas swiftly finish them.
Desperately, Leiningen searches his mind for one more hope of
fighting elemental force with elemental force: It may be possible to
dam the great river completely so that the water will overflow into the
entire "saucer" of land in which the plantation lies. The ranch house
and outbuildings stand upon rising ground, so the foundations are
higher than the flooding waters will reach.
Leiningen assembles his men, telling them of his plans to get to the
dam. From the Indian medicine man, Leiningen obtains a salve to
cover himself; he drinks the medicine administered to the bitten peon
at the water ditch. Then he begins his race against death, running
with only one thought.
32. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
Finally he reaches the weir and grips the ant-hulled wheel.
Holding his mouth tightly shut against the ants swarming
over him, Leiningen strains to turn and turn until the river
pours through. Now he feels the pain of the ants biting his
flesh. But he runs back, brushing ants from his bloodied face,
squashing them to death under his clothes. He is almost
blinded from the bite of one under his goggles; he stumbles
and tries to rise.
Suddenly before him he imagines the pampas stag in its
death agony: he vows not to die this way and staggers
forward. At last, Leiningen leaps through the flames and falls
unconscious. The peons rush to him, strip off his clothes, and
carry their bloodied, partially eaten leader into the house.
33. 6.) Plot/Synopsis
With the ants imprisoned between water and fire, the
men are saved. The ocean sweeps the battalions of
dead ants away. For a while a deposit of ants try to
attain dry land, but they are repulsed back into the
flood by streams of petrol.
Inside, Leiningen—the winner of the contest of man
versus nature—opens his eyes. "I told you I'd come
back . . . even if I am a bit streamlined."
