Leiningen Versus the Ants

Leiningen is the owner of a plantation on which he employs 400 indigenous people. He has been a planter for three years. Leiningen is an aging man with “bristling grey hair, [a] bulky nose, and lucid eyes” (Paragraph 1). He resembles “an aging and shabby eagle” (Paragraph 1). He is stubborn and overly reliant on his intellect, believing that it can assist him in solving all problems, particularly those presented by nature. He has already protected his plantation against drought, plague, and other problems. He values his own knowledge over that of the District Commissioner, who has lived in Brazil for a lifetime, or that of any of the indigenous workers. He has a commanding presence, which leads his workers to trust his wisdom beyond all else. Although he is “shabby,” an indicator of his rough existence as a planter in the jungle, he is also likened to an “eagle,” an animal associated with wisdom and foresight.

Leiningen is exemplary of the 19th-century colonizer. He is devoted to science and rationalism, and he envisions himself at the pinnacle of a hierarchy in which women and non-whites occupy lower rungs. He refuses to believe that there is any creature or force of nature that is beyond his understanding.