Faithful Elephants

Faithful Elephants

By Yukio Tsuchiya

           

This year, we read “Faithful Elephants” by Yukio Tsuchiya. It takes place during World War II in Tokyo. The army instructs the Ueno Zoo keepers to kill all of their animals because if a bomb dropped on the zoo, the animals might get loose and hurt people.  The hardest for the zookeepers to kill were three elephants, John, Tonky, and Wanly, because they had strong emotional connections to these animals.

            In this story, Tsuchiya refers to things falling a lot. For example, he writes, “The cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the Ueno Zoo. Their petals are falling in soft breeze of the sparkling sun.” Cherry blossoms are beautiful and represent the rebirth of things that died in the winter. However, the petals falling represent these things dying again. It brings the reader to the sad reality that everything, no matter how beautiful, dies eventually.

            Another part where Tsuchiya talks about things falling is when he writes, “Bombs were dropped on Tokyo every day and night, like falling rain. “ This comparison sounds so strange because bombs and rain are very different. Rain is harmless, and sometimes even considered peaceful. All it leaves behind is puddles and rainbows. On the other hand, bombs are terrifying. Bombs effect people for years and years, and can hurt people even indirectly. The only thing that these two have in common is that they fall. This represents that everything can fall; good or bad, harmless or harmful, literally and figuratively.

            In addition, rain helps plants and crops grow. When things become dehydrated and dry, rain can heal them. Bombs however, only hurt things. They hurt people, animals, buildings, plants, and much more. It is very difficult, and nearly impossible to repair the damage that is done once a bomb is dropped. Even after long periods of time, bombs still harm things. Rain is temporary, and for the amount of time it is here, it nourishes and helps things thrive and grow. Bombs completely ruin things, and stump the growth of things.

            Tsuchiya also writes, “He was still patting the tombstone tenderly as the cherry blossoms fell on the grave, like snowflakes.” The cherry blossoms represent liveliness. The cherry blossoms falling on the tombs represent the elephants’ legacy will live on forever. The comparison of cherry blossoms to snowflakes represents how gentle and soft Tonky and Wanly. However, the coldness of the snowflakes represents how cruel the world was, and how sudden everything was for the poor, innocent elephants.

            Things falling in this story symbolize John, Tonky, and Wanly’s fall from innocence.  The elephants were unaware of what was happening to them. They didn’t understand why their friend wasn’t feeding them. They didn’t understand war, hatred, or violence. All that they understood was loyalty, and trusting people who they believed were their friends even after they hurt them. They only knew certain things; the things that they were taught in that cage for all their lives. They thought that the only things that could happen to them were the things that happened to them in their cages; which could be viewed as either their safe havens, or their prisons. Even once they were being starved to death, they believed that doing tricks for the zookeepers would earn them food and water. The elephants were blissfully ignorant, but at the same time, they were struggling with what they didn’t know. They fell from being completely content and happy and knowing what was going to happen everyday, to being confused, hungry, and in pain, in a short amount of time.