INTERPRETATING THE STORY: Discuss the symbolisms in the short story and
story's possible meaning
From Leo Tolstoy's A Confession and Other Religious Writings
There is an old Eastern fable about a traveller who is taken unawares
on the steppes by a ferocious animal. In order to escape the beast, the
traveller hides in an empty well
, but at the bottom of the well, he sees a
dragon with its jaws open, ready to devour him. The poor fellow does not
dare to climb out because he is afraid of being eaten by the ferocious beast,
neither does he dare drop to the bottom of the well for fear of being eaten
by the dragon. So he seizes hold of a branch of a bush that is growing in
the crevices of the well and clings on to it. His arms grow weak and he
knows that he will soon have to resign himself to the death that awaits him
on the either side. Yet he clings on and while he is holding on to the one
branch, he looks around and sees that two mice, one black and one white
are steadily working on their way round the bush he is hanging from,
gnawing away at it. Sooner or later, they will eat through it and the branch
will snap, and he will fall into the jaws of the dragon. The traveller sees
this and knows that he will inevitably perish. But while he is still hanging
there, he sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the bush, stretches his
tongue and licks them.
INTERPRETATION AND MEANING OF SYMBOLS:​