Two Bad Ants
Two Bad Ants is a 1988 children's book written and illustrated by American author Chris Van Allsburg.
 Two Bad Ants | |
| Author | Chris Van Allsburg |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Chris Van Allsburg |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
Publication date | 1988 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 32 pp |
| ISBN | 0-395-48668-8 |
| Preceded by | The Z Was Zapped |
| Followed by | Just a Dream |
Plot summary
The title characters, while journeying through a human home, decide to exploit a sugar bowl on their own rather than delivering the sugar cubes to the colony's queen (so each of the ants get one sugar cube and so does the queen ant). They experience misadventures: they land in a cup of coffee, almost get toasted on an English muffin, fall into a sink, get threatened by its garbage disposal unit, and are nearly electrocuted when they enter an electric outlet. Chastened, they rejoin a line of ants carrying sugar cubes back to the colony.
Interpretations
In Philip Nel's analysis, a conflict between the book's plot and its illustrations leads to artistic tension. While the ants' return to the colony suggests "a victory for the bosses" and the narrative could be considered a "capitalist parable", the comparatively huge appliances in the kitchen, which terrify the ants, imply conspicuous consumption. Nel likens the book's resulting ambiguity to the works of Magritte.[1]
References
- CHILDREN'S BOOKS; FELONS IN THE SUGAR BOWL. Sanford Schwartz, New York Times, November 13, 1988. Retrieved June 17, 2010
Footnotes
- Philip Nel (2009). The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 126–128. ISBN 978-1-60473-252-8.