Underneath the tranquil cherry blossom tree, lies a memorial with a sorrowful and twisted story to tell. In “Faithful Elephants,” by Yukio Tsuchiya, multiple symbols are shown in the form of settings to represent the theme. Tsuchiya takes us to a zoo, amidst a time when Japan is plagued by war. The Government requires all zoo animals to be killed, so that in the event that Tokyo is bombed, they can’t escape and run wild around the city. The zoo employees find it particularly difficult to kill the Elephants (these Elephants were one of the more beloved animals at the Ueno Zoo-frequently performing tricks in front of an adoring audience). The warm, sunny cherry blossom petals depicted in the beginning of the story, the elephants’ cage in the middle, and the dark, cold memorial at the end of the story are three significant settings in this heart-wrenching tale. The brilliant Yukio Tsuchiya uses symbolic settings in this story, to show how even the most basic of things can connect to and/or influence our overall feelings/emotions, and eventually be associated with the main idea or theme of a piece of literature.
First of all, the cherry blossoms shown to us at the very beginning of the story are essential because they symbolize peace-an emotion quite adverse to the overall feeling of a tale mostly focusing around war. The text says, “Their petals are falling in the soft breeze and sparkling in the sun.” Tsuchiya uses words like “soft” and “sparkling” to deliver a pleasant, amiable feeling to his readers. These petals elegantly and delicately descend over a memorial built for the animals that had been killed during this war, and show peace towards the lifeless beings. This emblematic setting connects to the ubiquitous theme of war and strife, because the petals show the eerie peace after a lengthy war. These warm, pulchritudinous cherry blossom petals show union and friendship towards the deceased animals and their memorial.
Second of all, the Elephants’ cold, dreary cage is also an important environment. The cage symbolizes gloom, restraint, and hopelessness. In the text, it is mentioned that, “Whenever a keeper walked by [the Elephants’] cage, they would stand up, tottering, as if to beg, ‘Give us something to eat. Please, give us water!’…The once big, strong elephants had become a sad shape.” Words like “tottering”, “beg”, and “sad” form dismal images in readers’ minds. The keepers cannot do anything to help, for it is illegal to allow them to live. This symbolic setting is used to serve as the theme of war, because the cages represent the gloom and lack of hope that dreaded war brings, showing the dark shadow war casts over its violent path of destruction. Also, cages show that there is no escape from strife. The dark cages are yet another important setting used to symbolize war.
Lastly, the somber cherry blossom petals, collapsing on top of the quiet memorial at the very end of “Faithful Elephants”, forms another incredibly important image. It is said in the text, “He was still patting the tombstone tenderly as the cherry blossoms fell on the grave, like snowflakes.” The image of “snowflakes” is a true turning-point to this quotation. Snowflakes are chilling, yet light and zephyrean. This picture is dark and cold, yet in some ways, sweet. When we think of cherry blossoms, we think of warmth, beauty, and peace. However, Yukio Tsuchiya uses this floral-array to represent an unsettling, gloomy, and dark end of his story. The use of cherry blossom petals also relates to the beginning of the piece, although the tone in which the two are presented to the audience is quite contrasting. The emblematic setting of the gloomy cherry blossom petals in the finale of Tsuchiya’s masterpiece is used to represent war and discord by showing that in the end, all must pay the pernicious price that is war.
Overall, Yukio Tsuchiya uses many important, symbolic settings (such as the warm petals, the Elephants’ cold cages, and the dark and dismal petals at the end) as tools to connect to the overall theme/main idea of his work. In our lives, as readers, we can use these symbolic settings to better understand the theme of pieces of literature that we read, so keep an eye out for symbols in the next book you read!
I really like this piece. I never saw the environment as symbolism because I always thought that the author didn't influence the setting (because this is a somewhat true story), but the descriptions really change the setting to be whatever the author wants. I also never saw the connection between the cherry blossoms at the beginning and the end. You found a lot of interesting things in the setting.
ReplyDelete