GLOBAL RECIPROCAL COLLEGES

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

FINAL OUTPUT

A REVIEW AND A CRITICISM

OF THE KOREAN NOVEL:

“TOWER OF ANTS”

In Partial requirement of the subject Developmental Reading (TCP 5), 2nd Sem., S.Y 2018-2019)

Submitted by:
Mr. Reymond S. Cuison

Submitted to:
Mr. L. A. Mercader

April, 2019

A) REVIEW

I. Summary

The story started with a loud scream of a naked girl because of the disturbance made by the insects,
then the protagonist asked about what happened and they discovered the existence of the ants. So then
his struggles to the ants begun in his apartment. He observed and investigated the ants, and discover
that the ants unceasingly searching out and gathering sweet foods. The ants usually started by individual
or there's a soldier ants will search out for sweet foods and will inform the other ants upon discovery,
and will cause them to come out in rush to devour the found goods. The protagonist is amazed when he
realizes that there is a order or amazing power of organization in the ants’ movements. But then he
strategized how he will get rid of the ants. He also asked the neighbor about the existence of these at
the apartment and found that his neighbor also experiences the ants existence, to the point that her
baby was bitten by these ants. He sprayed it, disturbed the ants lane, and layed a trap in his room, after
he learned it from an old man who hunts and sell the ants at the market. At first, he dismisses the ants
but again they begun to emerge from all corners if his apartment, they continue to come out in horde.

The conflicts extended to his office, he as a single man who works as a copywriter at an advertising
agency is under much stress because of an advertisement for a new drink. Out of the mental block, he is
being pressured and stressed from the client rushing him to finish the concept of the ads, but he failed
to do it. At work, he struggles with advertisement, and at home, with the ants. In the end, he is unable
to get rid of them, whatever the method he uses. The last scene of the story, he comes to the thinking
that he needs to love the ants instead and to be reconciled with them as his neigbor suggest to love
them. He attempts to give his body as a sacrifice. After pouring sweet at the water tub, he emerged to
the water and knowing that he absorbed already the sweet by his naked body, he layed at the floor to
thinking that he will feel at peace as he become one with the ants. And finally his body covered by the
ants.

II. Character Evaluation

The unnamed protagonist, is under much stress because of an advertisement for a new drink. A
copywriter, much like a soldier ant, is one who is hired by companies to win battles in commercial
warfare. It is his job to identify and stimulate the desires of the consumers, making them rush in droves
“like ants” to buy specific products. For this purpose, he has to produce ads that subtly arouse people’s
sexual desires and promise satisfaction. This copywriter, however, suffers from a mental block and is
unable to come up with a fresh and new idea. It is during such a dry spell that he discovers ants in his
apartment. A single man, and usually bring different women in his place that I can say he is an
independent, a happy go lucky man, living alone and away from his family, if he has any. Doing a tough
white colar job, he can be seen as a smart person, a thinker, for example the narrator shows that the
protagonist thinks differently, can find enjoyment even in little things as he mesmerized by his
observation to the movements of the ants. Has different analization from the ants and theoritized the
idea of what if the ants will become like this and that.

I found a little weirdness from his acts of dealing of the ants. His thoughts about it. Thinking that the
ants have occupied his place and he need to fight for his peace and rights.

III. Elements

a.) Setting

Where - The apartment of the protagonist is the main place used at the story, where the struggles with
the ants happened, also his office of his job, where the main character being presured by his job and the
market where he saw an old man selling fire ants.

When -

b.) Conflict (Problem)

M vs M
M vs Himself
M vs. Nature
M vs Society
Then, Explain

c.) Rising Action

d.) Climax

e.) Falling Action

f.) Resolution

B) CRITICISM (Psychological Approach in Criticising a story)

(3 Part paragraph)
INTRO

B) CRITICISM (Psychological Approach in Criticising a story)

(3 Part paragraph)

INTRO

The Tower of Ants is a short story written by Cho Inho and originally written in korean and is translated
to English by Yoo Jungkong, included with the illustrations describes the text in the story.

Seeing the story in the psychological approach helps for better understanding the author's motivation,
his mental ideas that represented by his story and the characters actions consciously and unconscious
and symbols being used in the whole story. Using ants as the main symbols represent here, can be seen
as the metaphor of the humanity.

BODY

CONCLUSION

BODY
CONCLUSION

The Story is about of a man who battles ants in his apartment, Tower of Ants paints a bleak picture of
the ant-like existence of members of modern society. It shows how humans have lost their individuality
and freedom, living as mere, functional components of a massive structure. Like the ants that
unceasingly search out and gather sweet foods in a uniform and orderly manner, humans rush forward
in pursuit of money and pleasure according to the order of an inhuman structure. The story revolves
around a single man who works as a copywriter at an advertising agency. The protagonist, who remains
unnamed throughout the story, is under much stress because of an advertisement for a new drink. A
copywriter, much like a “reconnoitering soldier” ant, is one who is hired by companies to win battles in
commercial warfare. It is his job to identify and stimulate the desires of the consumers, making them
rush in droves “like ants” to buy specific products. For this purpose, he has to produce ads that subtly
arouse people’s sexual desires and promise satisfaction. This copywriter, however, suffers from a mental
block and is unable to come up with a fresh and new idea. It is during such a dry spell that he discovers
ants in his apartment. He casually dismisses them at first. But the ants begin to emerge from all corners
of the apartment and to torment him. He tries to get rid of them, but they continue to come out in
droves. At work, he struggles with advertisement, and at home, with the ants.
In the process of battling the ants , the man learns that there are certain reconnoitering soldier ants that
search out sweet foods and inform the other ants upon discovery, causing them to rush out to devour
the found goods. He is astonished when he realizes that there is a kind of “order” as well as “a terrifying
power of organization” in the ants’ movements, which seem quite chaotic on the surface. He considers
how ants used to be species of bees before their wings degenerated and they became asexual “sterile
worker ants” that do nothing else but labor. He also reflects on the process by which ants lost their wild
instincts and gradually became domesticated as they began to live alongside humans. This, in turn,
causes him to recall an article he once read about ants living in tropical regions gnawing on trees and
building a “tower of ants,” which leads to the speculation that the ants “might mobilize their forces and
attempt to create a culture beyond their instincts.”
The image of the ants presented in the story is very similar to that of humans living in modern society. In
the same way that the ants charge toward sweets, human charge toward pleasure. The scene in which
the protagonist lust after the woman’s body, which seems to be made of sugar. Another picture of
human society is vividly captured in the section where the ants latch themselves onto a living worm,
tearing off its flesh. Humans and ants are also equated in the way they “rush ahead toward their desired
goal” and “display their power of organization.” In short, the structure and order of the world of ants is
shown to be no different from that of human society. The worker ants, which have lost their wild nature
and exist only to work, are like human beings who are chained to their jobs. All of his suggest that
human culture might be nothing more than a “tower of ants” created as a “culture beyond instinct.”
If this is the case, the protagonist’s battle with the ants can be interpreted as his resistance to being
reduced to their level. In the end, however, he is unable to get rid of them, regardless of the method he
uses. This is because his life – his lusting after sexual pleasure, his struggles to produce provocative
advertisements, and the domestication of his wild nature through his entrapment in an ordered
structure –is basically the same as that of the ants. It is inevitable, them, that the man has to cede his
place of dwelling to the ants. In the last scene of the story, he comes to the realization that he needs to
love the ants and to be reconciled with them. He thus attempts to offer up his body as a sacrifice. That
the protagonist finally feels at peace as he thinks about becoming one with the ants suggests that he
cannot help but submit to the ant-like existence demanded by the surrounding social order.
A grotesque allegory about a copywriter at an advertising agency who battles ants and finally becomes
one with them, Choi In-ho’s Tower of Ants awakens readers to the ant-like existence of humans living in
the modern social structure.