Sunday Reading:The Elephant Vanishes

 The Elephant Vanishes

 

"The Elephant Vanishes"was written by Japanese writer Haruki Mukarami.It was originally published in 1985 in Japan and first appeared in The New Yorker in 1991.I t is the final tale in short story collection by the same name that was translated into English and published in 1993.

When the story opens, the narrator is  sitting alone in his kitchen drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.He discovers a news article about the disappearance of the town's elephant, which has escaped.

"When the elephant disappeared from our town's elephant house,I read a out it in the newspaper."

The particular short story focuses on the protagonist's personal reaction to the presence and then disappearance of an old elephant in his hometown.

The story begins when the elephant vanishes unexpectedly.The narrator immediately,lets the reader know that he has followed the story of the elephant closely.In fact ,it's become almost an obsession.

The Mystery

              (The Shackles Restraining the Elephant)

The local media try to report the event but there are major points that don't seem to fit.First of all ,the elephant is reported to have escaped .The narrator knows that this is impossible,as the elephant was always held in place by a shackle on its leg,the key to which were kept by town authorities and had been left undisturbed.

Another issue was the route of escape .Aside from the shackle,security of the elephant's house included a high wall which made the area almost fortress like.There were also no footprints of man nor beast leading from the elephant house in any direction.

Effect on the Narrator

Perhaps one of the reasons the story is not simply about an old elephant who disappears, is the near-obsession the narrator develops with the character and persona of the animal and his trainer. The narrator reveals that he had found a passage near the elephant house through which he could observe the interaction of the beast and his keeper after hours. The close, yet silent, relationship between the two was quite compelling to the narrator.

Months after the incident, the narrator meets a young woman with whom he agrees to share some drinks and conversation. He finds her quite interested in the elephant disappearance story, and proceeds to tell all, including his personal views on the event.

The night before the animal vanished, the narrator was using his secret observance spot and noticed something strange and impossible to explain: it seemed as if the elephant and the keeper had become almost the same size. But when his female companion questions him about this odd perception, it becomes clear that she is skeptical and losing interest

The narrator never sees her again,a nd develops a kind of emotional lethargy,n ot caring one way  or another about his day to day life.

Human VS Animals 

The elephant's relationship with the keeper is one based on mutual respect and a deep valuation of one another.The close friendship that the narrator witnesses between the pair is a strak contrast to how the elephant is treated by outside society,suggesting that humanity's inclination to either overlook or control animals is any thing but natural.

As the story unspools,Murakami uplifts the Zookeeper as a role model of sorts ,praising his quiet humility,which exemplifies a mutual sense of respect between different species.Murakami juxtaposes this intimate companionship between the elephant and it's keeper with the town's mistreatment and neglect of the inclination of  humanity to controld animals is inherently immoral and motivated by political power ,financial gain and entertainment value.

Imbalance

Imbalance is one of the major themes of the story is the idea of things being out of balance. This theme is introduced when the narrator tells the editor about the importance of unity in kitchen design, as he states, "Even the most beautifully designed item dies if it is out of balance with its surroundings." The narrator later emphasizes the importance of balance between a creature and its environment when he talks about witnessing the change in the elephant's size in relation to the keeper's size. He states that the balance in size between the two has become more equal, because the elephant has shrunk or the keeper has gotten bigger, or both. Following the disappearance of the elephant and the keeper, the narrator again expresses the idea that "things around me have lost their proper balance." He is no longer able to take action on his own behalf, as he is haunted by this sense that the urban world is out of balance, and he feels that a kind of natural balance has broken down inside him.

Appearances and Reality

Related to the theme of imbalance is the difference between appearances and reality. The narrator points out that the article covering the story of the elephant's disappearance is strange, because the reporter tries so hard to maintain that the elephant escaped, when the facts indicate that the elephant had to have almost magically vanished. The characters in the story try to maintain an appearance of normality in the face of an event that defies logic, leading to pointless acts that do not address the nature of the situation.

Word count:865 words