Chris Prenatt
11/17/10
English 10 Mod 8-9
Critical Lens

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” This quote is still meaningful today. This quote is like a rite of passage, or a challenge such as birth, death, puberty, or other struggles in our lives. We have to go through hell & back sometimes in order to achieve our goals. The quote also ties into two other short stories. It appears in “Through the Tunnel” by Dorris Hessing & “Leiningen vs. the Ants” by Carl Stephenson.
The story, “Through the Tunnel” by Dorris Hessing is about a boy named Jerry who is on vacation with his mom on a beach. He sees some older boys dive into the water, disappear, & resurface on the other side. Later, Jerry tries to swim to a tunnel the boys use to get to the bay. He nearly dies trying yet remarkably survives & goes through a rite of passage while in the tunnel. This quote directs to the story because, he tries to go through the tunnel but he almost dies within the tunnel. He makes it to the other side learning that the bay is useless to him. In the end, he gains his independence. The theme of the story is independence is gained through rite of passage events. The story also contains a rite of passage event.
The short story, “Leiningen vs. the Ants” by Carl Stephenson is about a man named Leiningen who owns a plantation in Brazil. He is warned about deadly, flesh-eating ants that are coming towards his plantation. He stays and tries to fend off the killer ants. However, Leiningen’s defenses are eventually overtaken by the persistent ants. The ants work together to overcome obstacles made by Leiningen. Eventually, Leiningen decides to flood his plantation and kills the ants in the process. This quote directs to the story because, even though he nearly dies in the process, he overcomes the ants and lives to see another day. Four Year Strong also ties into this story. They said, “Today we have to save ourselves. We have to save ourselves from losing on what we pride ourselves on choosing. It's all that's left that we can depend on. But it gets to hard to have an opinion
on the loyalties unspoken and the thoughts that can't be broken.” The theme for this story is you can accomplish anything with brainpower or pay attention to warnings. The conflict for this story is man vs. nature (title) & man vs. self (Leiningen vs. desire to protect plantation.)
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” The quote ties into “Through the Tunnel” because, the quote can relate to a rite of passage & also into “Leiningen vs. the Ants” because, you can accomplish anything with brainpower, just like Leiningen did. I once cracked my head opened when backing into the corner of a wall. I was bleeding, but it didn't kill me. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.