The story begins when the elephant vanishes unexpectedly. According to the narrator, he discovered a passageway next to the elephant house through which he could watch the interaction between the animal and his caretaker. In addition to the shackle, the elephant's residence was secured with a high wall for additional security. The narrator found the two's close, silent bond to be captivating. A few months after the incident, I met a young lady and had a few drinks with her. We chatted about the incident and my feelings about it. The narrator observed something odd the night before the elephant disappeared. The elephant and the keeper appeared to have nearly matched in size. But when his female friend pushes him about this strange perception, it's clear that she's tired and uninterested. The narrator never sees her again, doesn't care what his daily activities are, and falls into emotional laziness.
LITERARY CONVENTIONS AND ELEMENTS
Plot: A man witnesses his adored elephant disappear into thin air, a newlywed couple experiences nighttime hunger crises that force them to rob a McDonald's, and a young woman learns that she has acquired an affection for a little green monster that crawls through her backyard.
Exposition: When the zoo closed, the old elephant's original owner could not find the animal a new home, so the town adopted it.
Rising Action: The elephant and its caretaker mysteriously vanish.
Climax: The narrator is focused on the elephants. He thus keeps a close eye on the elephant and its caretaker from the cliff. The narrator observes that the elephant's stature changes with its caretaker.
Falling Action: The narrator tells everything that he saw from the cliff to a woman. After that, they never meet again.
Resolution: The narrator resumes living their life without any longer challenging instances, and their viewpoints change.
Setting: The short story takes place in a Tokyo suburb in the 1980s, a time of economic boom for Japan. Wealthy and successful, the town's residents lead a peaceful life that is only sometimes disturbed by strange occurrences like the elephant's disappearance. The zoo will be replaced with high-rise residences due to new projects brought about by prosperity. The narrator mentions that his business enjoys using English phrases like "kit-chin" to advertise things, suggesting that the story took place at a time when the Americanization of Japan was well underway.
Character and Characterization: There are four major characters in the story "Elephant Vanishes." The narrator, the elephant, Noboru Watanabe, and the editor are significant characters. Minors are the mayor and the developer.
The narrator, who describes the disappearance of an ancient elephant and its caretaker from the Tokyo suburb where he resides, is the story's primary character. He is an unnamed 31-year-old employee of a significant electrical appliance manufacturing. He is a lonely, single man who lives alone. We can infer that he is a perfectionist and a picky person because he keeps a scrapbook, reads the newspaper cover to cover, and visits the elephants' home whenever he has free time. The narrator makes it evident that he is obsessed with elephants by compiling a scrapbook of all news articles about them. He also went to local council sessions to observe discussions about whether the town should have an elephant, and after it was relocated to its home, he visited it whenever he had the chance. However, despite quitting smoking three years earlier, he restarted once the elephant disappeared. All of this demonstrates his obsession with elephants. Although he may enjoy elephants, he is not an animal lover. "Still, simply killing the thing would have been out of the question" makes this quite plain.
The elephant. It is an unnamed, symbolic character that represents a different era. It is a mystery character since no one knows how it disappeared with the keeper at any point in the story.
Noboru Watanabe is the sister's fiancé. He appears to be the ideal man, but his brother dislikes him, and he has a drinking allergy.
The editor, who is likewise unidentified and the editor of a magazine for young homemakers, is the last central character. She is a 26-year-old woman who is intelligent and interested. She first appears in the story's second section after meeting the narrator at a party. She and the narrator are conversing; they find common ground as the talk continues and grow to enjoy one another. The atmosphere shifts later when the narrator mentions the missing elephants, and when she says, "I never should have told you about the elephant," the narrator feels uneasy.
The mayor of the town where the narrator resides and the person in charge of negotiating a solution to the elephant's problem will result in the community taking control of the elephant. The developer is the other supporting character. He is just a man who wants to build a luxury condominium in the area surrounding the former zoo.
Mood: The mood varies based on the story, but it typically carries overtones of life unhappiness.
A Sociological Criticism of "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami
The short story "The Elephant Vanishes" depicts an alienated man who is obsessed with the disappearance of an elephant. Haruki Murakami, a Japanese author created this famous book. It tackles about a lot of issues that are faced by humanity even at the present but one of the issues that can be taken more interest is about society and its choices in facing the problem they were experiencing.
From the start of the short story, the narrator has told the readers the uninterest in the vanishing of the elephant as it shares that the cost of taking care of it is expensive, which leads to the lack of care for the vanished elephant. The short story displayed the lack of empathy of companies the only interest is increasing their income and does not care about the after-effects on the people, nature, animals, and sometimes the culture itself. One of the events that are happening in the present locally is open-pit mining, in the short story, the zoo was enclosed due to other interests especially increasing income-creating facilities. The symbol of community has contradicted their very idea of unity as it backfired. The people have lost their interest in a living being. This shows that the community lacks empathy, especially for the person who has cared for the elephant. The one person that shows humanity has been alienated by human beings, Haruki Murakami has shown successfully a case of irony. The criticism that suits well with the short story is (sociological criticism) as the issue focuses not on the individual but rather on the community itself where they are united in creating an environment that focuses on practicality. Soon after it has shown the after-effects to an individual which is not obvious in a short time, in contrast in a long time, this will slowly show the lack of their humanity itself, emotions, and most of the things that make a person human. Some Japanese writers have expressed through their literary works this substitution of culture that, in addition to being just external changes, leaves deep internal conflicts of adaptation in the society.
World War II has affected the world and its people, the short story displays some of its effects specifically located in Tokyo, Japan. The author wanted to show the readers what modernity offers that focuses more on the bad side rather than the good side. It gives examples that modernity's advantages but also being contrasted with the bad side as it takes away humanity in exchange for its practicality. This symbolizes a community being modernized and losing the identity that has been established. The narrator also tells the readers that the sense of satisfaction does not last as it contradicts the essence of being human. A human that connects with living beings, and gives sentimental value, reconnects with strong emotions.
The elephant here symbolizes the concept of self and individuality, specifically the relationship between the subject and reality itself. The kind of relationship where the subject is grounded is involved and doesn't feel any layers of detachment.
It is evident that in the short story the community lacks a sense of unity, because of the expansion of modernity in the town, it leads people to change their moral values. Also, the author reveals that people prioritize their economic growth over emotional emphasis for the elephant and zookeeper indicates that modernity can affect moral values.
“I continue to sell refrigerators and toaster ovens and coffee-makers in the pragmatic world, based on afterimages of memories I retain from that world….That’s probably because people are looking for a kind of unity in this kit-chin we know as the world.” The narrator talks about kitchen appliances which symbolize the unity and consistency of the world, in his own terms he was selling a sense of unity to a society that lacks the symbol of it. This implies that previous statements signify that the narrator has been bought back to his true sense of reality.
The story also depicts modernity’s negative impact on human life through the unified desired choice of the community it is evident that their ideas are being influenced by modernity. This eventually leads to the closing of the zoo, they have prioritized selling it to high-rise developers, in line with this, it will create income that can be used by the community. It can be observed that their thinking will always involve income, and money rather than sentimental value, cultural value, symbolism, and sympathy that involves humanity.
It has shown in the early parts that the narrator has put his hopes in the zoo keeper and the elephant because of their mutual relationship which is the perfect symbol for the uniting community but when the elephant vanished, this has made the narrator's mental stability unbalanced. The last quote “ They will never be coming back.” reveals the narrator is hopeless about the situation of the community that their minds focus on revolutionizing the environment's modernity, in the process, they have lost their sense of unity, empathy, sympathy, ultimately humanity
In conclusion, the narrator has long been aware that he will also someday join the elephant and the zookeeper to its vanishing, once he loses his role and value in this world.
What does the story reveal?
Humans are very uncertain and inconsistent. We humans should require some sort of unity to make sense of the world around us. Without unity, humans cannot greatly affect anything. Individually human beings are weak as they need unity to become a powerful force.
The narrator's fascination with the personality and character of the elephant and his trainer may be one of the reasons the story isn't just about an old elephant going missing. According to the narrator, he discovered a passageway next to the elephant house through which he could watch the interaction between the animal and his caretaker after hours. The narrator found the two's close, silent bond to be very captivating. A few months after the occurrence, the narrator meets a young lady and decides to have a few drinks and a chat with her. He tells her everything, including his opinions on the incident, after noticing that she is highly intrigued by the elephant disappearance story. After she disappears from his life, the narrator experiences a type of emotional lethargy and stops caring about his daily struggles. The narrator appears to have altered his outlook on life after reading about the elephant and its puzzling disappearance.
In these tales, a guy witnesses his beloved elephant disappear overnight, a married couple experiences hunger pangs that force them to stall at a McDonald's, and a young girl discovers a tiny green monster that burrows through her backyard and has the ability to read her mind. When reading one of Murakami's books, you never know what will happen or even which reality you will get lost in. Some characters appear to be stranded in a world devoid of excitement, while others attempt to flee by slipping into parallel realities, dream worlds, or even the past. People are perplexed by the world and look for explanations in order to justify their own existence. Above all, people fight — frequently in vain — to achieve balance in their lives.
This drawing represents that when the town lost the elephant, they went around searching for it. They needed it back because when they had the elephant, they saw that once we got rid of that pragmatism, we got to build and expand and become capitalistic to keep trying to collect money. The opposite was when the town realized, "Well, we care for an elephant. We need the elephant back." They realized that this town has a lot of pride in caring for things. So maybe it's that emotional side, the opposite kind of pragmatism, that people might be missing.
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