The ant and the grasshopper

The Ant and the Grasshopper
W.S. Maugham
Essay

There are some beliefs that everyone gets in their whole life, what they deserve, and it is based upon common sense and cultural thinking. However,there are exceptions for each rule or statement in existence.
Since it is remembered, the older generations have been trying to teach children the ambivalent moral lesson about the virtues of hardwork and planning for the future which it’s usually found in fables such as that of the Ant and the Grasshopper. One of the exceptions named before, is described in Maugham’s story which is aboutGeorge and Tom’s experiences. In this case, the ant is George and the grasshopper is Tom. One of them, George, chose the part of being a responsible and sensitive person, always being “hardworking, decent,respectable and straight forward” (1). It is he who has been working a lot for getting a special retirement for the end of his life. Moreover, he has been helping his brother, who “had been a soretrial for twenty years” (2). He is this kind of person who decides to live his life in order to satisfy his own wishes. He is a very nice and charming person, but he is constantly cheating on hisbrother and all his friends. Moreover, he has a lot of faults and he is always looking for luxuries.
“For twenty years Tom raced and gambled, philandered with the prettiest girls, danced, ate in the mostexpensive restaurants, and dressed beautifully” (3) while George, being all worried about a life that wasn’t his, was there just getting old and more preoccupied each day without enjoying his ownbusiness. Although he is a role model for everyone and Tom is supposed to be the bad guy, it might be safely said that the end of the story is quite funny because his brother is the one who got everythingthat he desired by taking the easy way, without making any effort.
According to the original fable, giddiness is rewarded and laziness is punished but this time the author gives an interpretation...