Morale in The Origin Of Ants
What is your interpretation of the Chinese folktale, "The Origin of Ants?" What do you think the moral of this story is? Do you like it? Why or why not? This Friday we have read traditional Chinese folklore named The Origin Of Ants. A protagonist in the story is a young man who fabricates his supernatural skill of smell. Once he is called by the emperor to find the lost jade seal, he accidentally made the thief confess by murmuring "their name". However, when people are celebrating supernatural power and toss his high up in the air, he falls and shatters into dust, and those dust turn into ants with a great smell. The moral of this story is that people should never lie to make profits. Even though a liar can gain reputation and benefits by luck, it will only be temporal, and the liar will eventually pay the consequences, just like the man shattered to the dust. Besides, since the motivation for this man to make up his supernatural ability is a pressure to fi...