The ant and the dove; two animals you would never suspect helping each other if their life paths so happen to cross. Maybe the dove would eat the ant or step on it accidentally and end the fragile life for the ant. A family of ants could overtake a hurt dove and ends its life. The point here is that nature tends to be very hesitant or violent when two different species come in interaction with each other. There are many stories out there that would oppose this idea; for example the classic fable of the lion and mouse. The mouse is able to remove the thorn from the lions paw relieving him from pain rather than be hesitant and scared of the wild beast. The story of the ant and dove can fit into this same category. Drinking from a small stream of water running beside the sidewalk in the heart of downtown Manhattan, a dove notices several ants attempting to move a twig from one side of the sidewalk. The ants are nearly trampled and terrified after numerous citizens nearly ending the lives of the ants unknowingly with the soles of their shoes. The dove felt compassion for these ants; a rare moment in nature where two different species feel compassion for the other. To save the ants from their grave on the Manhattan sidewalk, the dove carefully grabbed the small twig in its mouth, assured all the ants were secure on the twig, and glided gently to the outskirts of town in to the woods. The dove placed the twig by a small stream deep in the woods where no pedestrians could so harshly end the family of ant’s lives.
Months have gone by now and the dove has returned to exact spot where the ants were once placed by the small running stream; this particular place in the forest is protected and rich with food so the dove returns here every so often when in hunt for food. The dove remembered placing the ants here but could see no signs of any ant life nearby. After scavenging and finding barely any food in the area, the dove notices a pile of berries collected by the ants; they are piled in the exact same spot where the twig was placed and still remains. The dove could not find any food in this area because the family of ants collected all the food and piled it for the dove in return of saving their families lives the day on the Manhattan sidewalk.
Author's Note:
This is a re-imagining of the classic "Ant and the Dove" Aesop's fable. In the original fable, the story is told by a stream of water still, but rather the Dove saves a single ant from drowning in the water by placing a blade of grass for the ant to cross on. Later, the ant witnessed the dove almost being killed by a man with a stone, but just before the stone was released the ant stung the foot of the man saving the life of the Dove. One act of kindness answered by another act of kindness between two different wild species.
Bibliography:
This story is based on the fable "The Ant and the Dove" in Aesop for Children, (anonymous) illustrated by Milo Winter.
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| (Illustration of dove assisting the ant cross the stream with a blade of grass as described in Aesop's Fables. Source) |
I like how you weaved into the story a bit more of a contemporary environment for it to take place in. A big city like Manhattan almost makes it seem more realistic in a sense. It made me think how interesting it is that you do here about animals showing acts of kindness towards one another when naturally I would assume they were not capable of such. The story also makes me think about the idea of paying it forward. The dove showed an act of kindness without expecting anything in return. However, later on when he was in need of food, the ants were there to help him. Great job with the story.
ReplyDeleteThat's karma for you! I enjoyed this good old fashioned help-out-your-fellow-man story. And I agree with Steven about you putting a modern twist on things. I think it would have been pretty cool, imagery-wise, if the ants had made a new colony on the spot where the dove dropped them.
ReplyDeleteI also think this story has some interesting parallels to the scorpion and the frog. Only when the frog helps out the scorpion, the scorpion betrays him and they both end up dying. It's sort of the cautionary tale version of this, but I think these two stories have some great synergy.
Hi Alex!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story! You definitely don’t hear of “enemies” in nature helping one another usually in stories. Typically, these stories always have a sad ending. I like how you mentioned the story of the lion, thorn, and mouse. I haven’t thought about that story in a long time and it’s a pretty good one! Also, I like how you took the older fable and kinda “modernized” it by making the setting by in a city and such. In addition, I love how the kindness was returned to the dove by the ants gathering berries for it for saving their lives. That was a nice ending to your Storytelling for week 1! Great post!
Alex,
ReplyDeleteGood story. Knowing a little background form the story the lion and the mouse I had a feeling that the two different animals would be helping each other out. I was curious to see how the ants would help the bird out, after the bird took them to safety. I liked how the ants helped feed the bird when there was no other food to be found. Even though the ants are little they helped out in a big way. I wonder how you choose to pick the ants being saved in the city then taken to the woods. Are you from the city? For next story what if, instead of one animal returning the favor of a life for a life one did not. If say the ants did not seem to show appreciation they were saved and didn't give the bird any berries, instead the bird was so hungry it ate the ants. Just a what if possibly or maybe an idea for your next story. Overall I like how you stuck to the original story but changed it up. It keeps the reader interested in what the next change could be.
-Ashlie
I liked the story because I am familiar of the story of the lion and the mice. I didn’t choose to read of Aesop’s fables but I enjoyed this take. I do tend to enjoy the stories about karma. I wouldn’t have thought ants and doves were enemies though. I could picture a dove ignore ants and ants ignoring doves but I never pictured them as particularly hostile or friendly to each other. My takeaway was that we should be kind to everyone, not just our enemies.
ReplyDeleteYour formatting is a little weird for me. It’s a bit difficult to read the text. The text is a little small for me and the color combo seems weird for me. The blue and purple for one make it difficult to read. Changing the spacing might be helpful. You might consider changing the blue to a lighter shade of blue. I don’t know if you know this but you have a type for the Week 3 label, it says (Week3. I do like how your images stand out really well though.