Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Lesson Plan

In "Bestiary", what does the ant farm seem to represent? Why do Isabel's feelings toward the ants change?

Students will likely observe a connection between the ants and Isabel's emotional or spiritual state in relationship to her environment. Her feelings toward the ants change depending on whether she feels happy or trapped in her summer environs. Students might reference Isabel valuing black ants for being more "ferocious" and her expectation that they would fight with the red ants, or the scene in which she feels the ants' presence at night, lights the lamp and is surprised to find them hard at work, "as though they had not yet lost their hope of getting out"....