We Are the Ants

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-12

Chapters 13-24

Chapters 25-40

Chapters 41-48

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Value of Human Life

We Are the Ants explores the value of human life. This theme appears in the first chapter when Henry is given the option to prevent the destruction of Earth and the human race. Henry is immediately unsure if he wants to save humans from the pain humans experience and inflict. For Henry, human life is defined by struggle, shame, doubt, pain, and oppression. Henry is young but has already endured many hardships. His nihilism about human life is important because it informs his character development and the necessary plot developments that help Henry learn the value of human life.

Henry’s nihilism is informed by his boyfriend Jesse’s death by suicide. Jesse left no note and had given Henry no indication that he was struggling with serious depression. Therefore, Jesse’s death feels meaningless. The tragedy of not having Jesse in the world with Henry, robbing Henry of the joy and love he felt within their relationship, is heightened by the way Jesse died. Henry figures that if there is no meaning behind Jesse’s death, then there is no meaning to life. This is an age-old human problem. Human beings have long wondered what death and life signify and how to understand their roles in their own lives. For Henry, this existential crisis is emphasized by the lack of support he gets from other people. Because months go by without anyone supporting Henry in coming to terms with Jesse’s death, Henry internalizes his guilt over Jesse’s death and is left to wallow in his grief. Jesse provided Henry with so much happiness that Henry is unsure how to live without that happiness. He is too young to know that happiness can come around again. Henry cannot save the world and appreciate the value of human life until he acknowledges Jesse’s death as a tragedy without explanation or logic.

Henry’s nihilism is increased by the bullying he endures at school. Other students at his high school are cruel to him. Marcus and his friend Adrian physically assault Henry and mock him for his childhood stories of alien abductions. The depths of their cruelty prove to Henry that human beings are ugly at their core. Because one of his bullies is also his secret sexual partner, Henry internalizes the bullying as indicative of his flaws. Henry believes he is unworthy of respect and love, which makes his life unbearable.

Henry’s passion for science also contributes to the development of this theme. Henry understands the scientific fact that human beings are small compared to the rest of the universe. While humans believe they are superior to other living beings, Henry knows that there are other life forms and cosmic forces at work that make humans as small as an ant is to a human. This perspective makes Henry cynical about the value of human life and inspires the novel's title. Henry studies science enough to know that there are myriad ways humans can destroy themselves, scenarios he imagines in his journal entries contemplating the end of the world. Henry’s appreciation for the vast beauty and complex reality of the universe contrasts sharply with his low estimation of human worth. But this perspective is subverted by the novel’s end when Henry learns to appreciate the value of human life.

This change occurs because Henry finds love in his family and friends and wants them to keep living, even if their futures are short and mired by pain. Henry realizes that even a life full of struggle has moments of beauty, joy, and potential for change. A host of secondary characters, such as Audrey, Diego, and Zooey, help him see human life's beauty. Henry’s valuation of human life also parallels his journey to mental health. When he finally asks for and receives help, he develops the autonomy and self-esteem to find hope for his future.

The Joy and Hope We Find in Others

We Are the Ants emphasizes the importance of relying on other people because, as flawed as humans are, they can instill hope and joy in one another.

Henry compares human beings to ants, a metaphor that changes meaning throughout the novel. The metaphor comparing humans to ants at the novel’s end becomes a positive celebration of human resilience and community spirit. Ants work hard to help one another survive; each ant in a colony has an important role in keeping the colony alive. Like ants, human beings are responsible for helping each other survive, thrive, and find success. It takes the duration of the novel for Henry to realize this, which is part of the joy of coming of age and discovering the power of other people’s positive influence on individual identity.

Henry temporarily lost this belief in the human communal spirit because of experiences in his past, such as his boyfriend’s death by suicide and his father’s abandonment of the family. But Henry starts to repair his understanding of the joy and hope we find in others when he meets his new friend, Diego Vega. Diego is a positive influence in Henry’s life. He gives Henry confidence throughout their friendship. Henry is so impressed by Diego that Diego’s attention to Henry confuses but pleases him. Despite Diego’s dark past, he is everlastingly positive about his future. He encourages Henry to believe in the value of human life by showing Henry loyalty and love. Diego’s portrait of Henry is beautiful and full of deep metaphors, and it helps Henry gain confidence and understand himself in new ways. Diego and Henry’s friend Audrey help defend Henry against his bullies. Without the support of his friends, Henry would not have been able to vanquish his antagonists and discover his self-worth.

Henry unexpectedly finds community in his family. While every individual in his family struggle with their own conflicts, they come together and support one another in a dysfunctional but loving way. Charlie antagonizes Henry, but Charlie also defends Henry and proves that he’ll be there for Henry through his hardest moments. Henry’s mother struggles with her divorce, status as a single mom, and unfulfilling job, but she’s the one who intervenes when Henry needs help. She confronts Henry about his relationships and his suicidal ideation. Henry’s mother ensures that Henry checks into the psychiatric in-patient treatment that ultimately saves his life and helps him find a new way of appreciating the world. Henry compares his family to dark matter, in which an as-of-yet unexplained scientific phenomenon keeps objects in a gravitational pull that defies typical rules of gravity. This metaphor is fitting for Henry’s family. Despite their flaws, dysfunction, and individual and shared pain, Henry’s family comes together and supports one another.

Developing Identity

An important trope in young adult literature is the development of identity. Teenage development is marked by a burgeoning sense of autonomy, which develops hand-in-hand with the shame of growing up.

An important identity in this novel is Henry’s sexuality. While Henry is comfortable with his sexuality, he also faces ridicule from his school community and initially navigates his feelings for Diego without certainty that Diego is into boys. Henry’s sexuality is one of the few parts of his identity in which he is confident, which signifies Hutchinson’s celebration of LGBTQ+ identity. Henry’s confidence is juxtaposed with Marcus’s shame. Marcus is antagonistic, violent, and self-destructive. It is implied that at least part of Marcus’s shame is his secret homosexuality. He has sex with Henry and even believes he loves Henry, though he doesn’t treat Henry respectfully in public. Marcus even tells Henry that he wishes Henry would have revealed the truth about Marcus so that Marcus didn’t have to. Marcus is ashamed of his sexuality and uncomfortable with being gay, which comes out in violent ways, particularly when he attempts to rape Henry. Henry’s rejection makes Marcus more ashamed because Henry’s social capital is so much lower than his that Marcus sees this rejection as a personal affront to his pride. Marcus is mired down by society’s expectations of his masculinity. As a popular athlete with a wealthy family, Marcus believes he must maintain an image of being heterosexual and physically dominant. Marcus's struggles with his identity unleash themselves in violent ways, emphasizing Hutchinson’s message that teenagers need to have the space and support to experiment and find themselves. Rejecting society’s expectations may make Henry a target for bullying, but in a way, he also lives freer than Marcus. Diego is much more comfortable with his sexual fluidity and symbolizes that sexuality is not necessarily a labeled and boxed experience. LGBTQ+ identity is important in Hutchinson’s novels and features prominently as a source of love (or, in Marcus’s case, the potential for love) in We Are the Ants.

Henry’s nickname at school, Space Boy, has been used as fodder to mock him for years. Based on his stories of alien abductions, this label fills Henry with shame even though Henry knows that his abductions are real and important. The shame comes from the cruelty of other people’s rejections. Henry is also self-conscious about his abductions because he knows it sets him apart from others. As a teenager, Henry doesn’t want to fit in as much as he wants to be invisible to others. In high school, teenagers are so self-conscious about their image and insecurities that anything that calls attention to themselves as different is bad. But Henry’s unique experiences with his alien abductions prove that being different is interesting and should be embraced as something to be proud of.

Another example of this theme is Diego’s relationship with his past. Diego refuses to be defined by his past and believes that he has the power to develop his own identity. This mature perspective highlights Diego as a guide for Henry’s character development.