“Mold of the Earth” is philosophical short story written be Boleslaw Prus.
This is a story with very deep but sad sense hidden in it. There are two characters having the conversation near the Temple of the Sibyl in Pulawy. One of the interlocutors is a botanist who is very interested in everything what is happening with nature.
The main theme of their discussion is mold that is growing on a boulder. The botanist assures his companion that mold splotches are not an lifeless dirt but animate beings, who can produce new generations, plough the ground, colonize empty territories and even destroy each other in wars. The narrator makes a simile between mold and human civilization. At the end of the story the narrator asks the botanist whether the history of mold’s existence is supposed to be mirrored in the history of mankind, and if that is so, where is art, soul, knowledge, consciousness? The botanist just laughed in response.
So, we can make the conclusion that botanist was like a phantom, like God who came to the narrator to aware how negative humanity’s influence on the planet may be. The author tried to show readers that sometimes people have no hearts, no souls, they don’t try to make something useful, only how rude and cruel they are.
“Mold of the Earth” must awaken in humans the feeling of guilt - the urge to make them change their behavior, be more kind and humane.
