Le Jour Des Fourmis

infobox Book |
name = The Day of the Ants
title_orig = Le Jour Des Fourmis
translator =


image_caption =
author = Bernard Werber
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = France
language = French
series = "Les Fourmis" trilogy
genre = Novel
publisher = Le Livre de Poche
release_date = 1992
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback & Hardback)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Le Jour Des Fourmis" (English: "The Day of the Ants") is a 1992 science fiction novel by
French writer Bernard Werber.

"Le Jour Des Fourmis" is the second part of a trilogy, preceded by "Les Fourmis" ("The Ants", 1991) and followed by "La Révolution des fourmis" ("The Revolution of the Ants", 1996).

Plot summary

"The Day of the Ants" again, just as its predecessor has several connected plotlines, some of which take place in the world of humans, while others - among ants. A year has passed since the time of "The ants". 17 people including several relatives of the pioneer of the deceased inter-species communication Edmond Wells are still trapped under an ant nest. Since a new queen has been in charge in the ant nest, the supplies of food given by the ants to human are growing smaller and smaller. Meanwhile strange murders are happening in the city of Paris, when several producers of insect are found dead in peculiar circumstances and no explanation of how the murders were committed. A wolve-fearing police detective and a woman afraid of humans, the niece of Edmond Wells, combine their knowledge in order to find out who or what is behind these murders.

Themes

Learning from each other

One of the central themes of the novel is that humans can learn a lot from the civilisation of the ants and vice versa. The people living under the ant test are acting more and more like ants and thus reach spiritual enlightenment. Meanwhile some of the ants from the nest through humans discover religion and start praising humans (or Fingers as ants call them) as gods.

Humans are not the owners of the earth

In one chapter of Edmond Wells' "Encyclopaedia or relative and absolute knowledge" the protagonist is ask about the best way to get rid of ants in ones apartment. To this Edmon Wells says that there is no reason why one should consider himself more of an owner of his own flat than ants. He claims that merely the fact that you buy something from another human doesn't mean that this something is yours now - you have merely more rights to be its owner now than other humans. Ants in this novel consider themselves the masters of the Earth and even claim to have been the cause why dinosaurs became extinct. Meanwhile cockroaches feeding from human trash consider humans their slaves.