The Ant and the Grasshopper free essay sample

The complication begins with the narrator meeting George Ramsay in the restaurant. From here onwards, the plot takes the form of recapitulation, where the reader is presented with a comprehensive account of the lives of the two Ramsay brothers, George and Tom, which are studies in contrast. As this part of the plot unfolds, the reader is able to match the characters of George and Tom to those of the ant and the grasshopper respectively. The narrator suspects from George? s behaviour in the restaurant that Tom has committed the worst of his misdeeds, and wonders if he has gone to prison. The resolution however ends on a note of surprise for the narrator, and possibly the reader as well, as George? s anger is shown to be the result of Tom having become incredibly wealthy instead of ending â€Å"in the gutter† or â€Å"in the workhouse†, as George had uncharitably hoped for. We will write a custom essay sample on The Ant and the Grasshopper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Thereby, the plot maintains the element of suspense, despite having disclosed a blueprint at the outset. What could have prepared the reader for this ending is the narrator? s personal bias against the ant that he reveals in the introduction, but the reader? realization is likely to come only from hindsight. Suspense is also produced by the discontinuous or interrupted temporal flow; for instance, the narrator meets an angry George in the restaurant, but the reader along with the narrator does not find out why George is angry, till the recapitulation in flashback-mode is completed. The plot moreover subverts the theme of La Fontaine? s fable by questioning the concept of poetic justice, and complicating an easy, one-dimensional view of character by adding dimensions to industriousness like pomposity and smugness. The ant may be hard-working, but if that makes him self-righteous, then can he be upheld as „better than? the lazy but fun-loving grasshopper as propounded by the fable, Maugham? s story asks. In the way â€Å"The Ant and the Grasshopper† turns the ending of the fable on its head, the plot becomes a way of reinforcing the theme of the story, that to approve of a person is not necessarily to like him, and that respectability, in certain contexts, might only be a form of hypocrisy or dishonesty.