Themes in Faithful Elephants (edited and revised version being handed in)

Faithful Elephants is a true story, written by Yukio Tsuchiya, that tells a story of hope during a time of war. In the story, the Ueno Zoo is forced to kill their beloved elephants, because by command of the army the zoo is forced to kill all of their animals in case of bombs hitting the zoo. This was very hard for the zookeepers being they had a special connection with the elephants, and the zookeepers hoped and hoped they wouldn't have to kill John, Tonky and Wanly.

The elephants represent small bits of hope within the zookeepers in many ways, using a quote from the text "they thought of sending them to the zoo in Sendai," made me realize that all throughout the story, the zookeepers didn't want to kill off their elephants. They decided to come up with ways to protect their elephants so they wouldn't have to kill them. Sending them to a different zoo was an option that saved the dear elephants’ lives. Killing the elephants in their perspective was like killing their own children, it was a seemingly impossible task, even if it was better for the elephants in the end.

The recurring theme within the book is that you can always hope you won't have to sacrifice someone/ thing that you love but if it's meant to happen it will. This is proven yet again in the excerpt with the quote "everyone was hoping and praying that if the elephants could survive only one more day, the war might be over and the elephants would be saved." While reading this section of the passage, I realized the zookeepers really didn't want to kill the elephants and were somewhat procrastinating by hoping that they would survive one more day. If only the elephants would survive one more day, maybe the war would end and the zookeepers could finally feed the elephants and save them.

Towards the end of Faithful Elephants, the elephants, Tonky and Wanly, slowly begin to die. They are being starved to death so the process is long and painful to watch. "He had no more courage to see them," wrote Yukio Tsuchiya. The zookeeper didn't want to face the reality that his elephants, who were like children to him, were on their way out. The zookeeper thought that if he didn't watch them, a miracle might occur and they would live, he was in denial. In some ways it makes sense, you don’t have to face the reality of someone who is about to die until it actually happens, and you have to deal with it.

In conclusion, Faithful Elephants, by Yukio Tsuchiya is a story of hope and wishing for miracles to occur. In life, you can always hope a miracle will occur and you won’t have to sacrifice someone/ thing you love, but if it's meant to be, it will happen.