"Faithful Elephants" Response

Faithful Elephants Response

Lucas Peterka 804

                Is war bad? In the story Faithful Elephants, by Yukio Tsuchiya, that is the question the author asks us as readers. Tsuchiya’s story is about three elephants and a group of zookeepers in World War Two. The elephants, however, are not really characters. They are used to symbolize hope. And Tsuchiya uses this symbolism to express his answer to the question he asks all his readers. He sees war as force that will eventually kill off all hope, even when we try to save it.

                The author starts to really delve into war affecting what hope we have and what we do when we start to lose it in these couple of lines. “Then, raising their trunks high in the air, they did their banzai trick… The trainer could stand it no longer ‘Oh Tonky! Oh Wanly!’ he wailed, and dashed to the food shed. He carried food and pails of water to them and threw it at their feet. ‘Here!’ he said, sobbing, and clung to their thin legs. ‘Eat your food! Please drink. Drink your water!’” We can see how Tsuchiya is demonstrating war’s effect on hope. The trainer reacts the way he does because he can feel his hope start to slip away. But if Tsuchiya’s claim is correct, the trainer’s attempt at saving his hope, will be for naught.

                In the line “But everyone was hoping that if the elephants could survive only one more day, the war might be over and the elephants would be saved.” we can see an almost direct connection between the elephants and hope. The zookeepers have this hope that the war will end if the elephants can stay alive. But it’s a desperate hope as if they’re losing it because the author says “hoping and praying” as if they’re losing control and grasping at things like God or plain luck. We can see war beginning to take a toll on not just the trainer’s feelings and emotions, but all the other zookeepers too. Tsuchiya is furthering is claim that war ravages hope.

                Tsuchiya ends his short story on a powerful and claim-proving scene. “Still clinging to the elephants, the zookeepers raised their fists to the sky and implored, ‘Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!’” With the death of the elephants, all hope the war would get better in any way was extinguished. Tsuchiya shows us that even though the zookeepers wanted to and tried to save the elephants and their hope, the war finally brought about their end. Hope turned to anger and powerlessness, the war still destroying their country and the hopes of countless others.

                This story, at first glance, is a short sad story. But when examined further, layers and layers of themes and conflicts are revealed. The most prominent, though, were hope and war and how they connected. Tsuchiya manipulated these themes masterfully to back up his claim; that war will eventually snuff out all hope we have, even when we try to hold onto it. And after reading his story, I have been led to wholeheartedly agree with it.