Short Story Review – The Large Ant

When I was in middle school, every year our English class started with five or six short stories before moving on to school mandated books. One of the short stories we read was “The Large Ant” by Howard Fast. It became one of my favorite short stories and gave a lot for twelve year old me to think about as I grew up.

Out of all of the ChatGPT summaries I have generated with these blogs, this is my absolute least favorite. Sure, I prompted it with “give me a short summary,” but it truly takes away all of the meaning this story gives. Nonetheless, as ChatGPT would say,

“The Large Ant” by Howard Fast is a short story about a man who finds an unusually large ant in his hotel room after a beach vacation. He kills it and brings the body to a friend, who reacts strangely and refuses to discuss it further. As the man investigates, he discovers hints that these ants may be intelligent and organized, possibly living secretly among humans. The story ends on an eerie, unsettling note, raising questions about what else might be hidden in plain sight and how little we truly understand about the world around us.

At a surface level, yes that it what happens. Its told from the perspective of a man, Morgan, who finds a fifteen-inch long ant on the foot of his bed and immediately kills it out of fear. He contacts an insect curator of a museum, Bertram Lieberman, to investigate it. He brings the ant to him, and Lieberman tells him that in the past five days he has had eight of the same unusually large ants brought to him. The interesting part however, is that each one of the ants has a small pouch they carried with little sophisticated tools. This leads them to a long in depth conversation about the nature of these creatures.

This story takes place around the time of the creation of the atom bomb, which plays a fairly big role in the underlying theme of this story. The atom bomb is an incredibly sophisticated weapon of total destruction, and this story highlights the rather violent and murderous nature of the human race. We think advanced weapons mean an advanced society and have nations constantly fighting in an arms race to have the most destructive armory.

Lieberman asks Morgan why he immediately killed the creature when it made no implications of aggression, and Morgan can’t really get a straight answer out other than he was terrified upon seeing it. Lieberman answers for him, saying “because you are a human being.” They question why the ant didn’t use one of the tools to defend itself if it is seemingly so intelligent, leading them to debate if this new race of ants has the “fear curse.” Humans don’t just fear other creatures, we primarily fear other humans because of the violent history of our species. The innate ability to feel and react to fear is one of our most prominent survival mechanisms. Morgan is confused at even the thought that none of these tools the ant carried would be a weapon, to which Lieberman replies,

“‘Why?’ Lieberman demanded. ‘Look at yourself, Mr. Morgan– a cultured and intelligent man, yet you cannot conceive of a mentality that does not include weapons as a prime necessity. Yet a weapon is an unusual thing, Mr. Morgan. An instrument of murder. We don’t think that way, because the weapon has become the symbol of the world we inhabit. Is that civilized, Mr. Morgan? Or are the weapon and civilization in the ultimate sense incompatible? Can you imagine a mentality to which the concept of murder is impossible–or let me say absent. We see everything through our own subjectivity. Why shouldn’t some other–this creature for example–see the process of mentation out of his subjectivity. So he approaches a creature of our own world–and he is slain. Why? What explanation? Tell me, Mr. Morgan, what conceivable explanation could we offer a wholly rational creature for this,'”

This one paragraph sums up the philosophical debate in which this story explores. Even for me, it’s difficult to imagine a society where fear of other creatures isn’t innate, murder is unfathomable and weapons aren’t even considered. Yet this new species of ants seems to lack all of these traits that every other species has. It really makes you reflect on the nature of our world and the way we treat other living things. Morgan begins to realize the weight of this, and Lieberman tells him,

“We have been rather harsh with you, Mr. Morgan. But over the past days, eight other people have done what you just did. We are caught in the trap of being what we are.”

While Lieberman recognizes and voices the fact of this being an unnecessary evil, he also recognizes that it isn’t our fault. We are human, and human nature comes with fear and violence no matter how hard you try to avoid it. Because of this new perspective he has given Morgan, Lieberman refers to these creatures as “social in the highest sense.” They are worlds more socially advanced than we are, as they cannot even comprehend the thought of fear of another living thing, let alone its own species.

Overall I think this short story is incredibly impactful and emphasizes a lot of the issues our society has and cannot return from. He says the whole world is on trial with the atom bombs and crave for war, and I wholly agree with this. Violence and fear of each other is so normalized in our society, and this story made me realize just how unfortunate it is that we cannot fathom another species lacking these traits that are so natural to us.