1. The Fifty-First Dragon by Heywood Broun
... a environment where competition for food is intense. Eating deer, pig, water buffalo, horses, long-tailed macaques, dogs, goats, sea turtle and bird eggs, birds and other small animals, the Komodo Dragon is obviously at the top of the food chain in its ecosystem. Therefore its enormous size is a significant, beneficial adaptation, which allows the reptile to easily and continually have access ... fowl, various frog species, the Komodo rat and a vast number of snakes as well as the hundreds of marine dwelling animals that call the Komodo waterways their home. The Komodo Dragon, although ...
... mounts as Madeline shows signs of life from her tomb. As the narrator is reading the story of Ethelred, Madeline truly comes awake. At the point where Ethelred slays the dragon, the narrator finally acknowledges and accepts the sounds he is hearing from within the vault. It is important to note the juxtaposition between the story itself and the story-within ... -the-story. The dragon symbolizes a vampire, and as the dragon is being slain, the vampire is coming back to life. This revival of Madeline as her dragon symbol is being slain conveys the concept of vampire's inability to die othe...
... that separate those who lived in clans and those who were outcasts. Most people lived in single family homesteads and were organized around a leader. As in the case with the dragon, which we see as a monster, might have actually been an outsider with whom others could not relate. Such a person could be either of a different race or of deformed nature and ... probably had a different mindset then most members of the community. With the dragon his looks were unacceptable to the public and he had a greedier demeanor by hoarding his treasures. This last part is particularly not acceptable s...