The Faithful Elephants

  The Faithful elephants written by Yukio Tsuchiya is a heartbreaking story of three elephants residing in a zoo during a war in Japan. Zookeepers are ordered by the army to execute the poor animals inhabiting inside the zoo. However, the zookeepers considered the animals and the three elephants as their own children, and the unfortunate sacrifice of them shows the cruelty of the past and war. The author of the Faithful Elephants established multiple different setting descriptions to reflect on the emotional feeling of the story, and to create contrasts between emotions displayed throughout settings so readers can understand the story better.

              The author of the Faithful Elephants immerses readers "gently" into the story. The lighthearted description of the Ueno Zoo provides a peaceful setting for readers as they slowly settle into the story. For instance, the author describes, "the cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the Ueno Zoo. Their petals are falling in the soft breeze and sparking in the sun." The image portrayed a beautiful and loving place which everyone enjoys.  Also, the cherry blossoms fully depicted the symptoms of spring, which represents rebirth. 
    
               Another example of how the author uses setting descriptions to reflect on the emotional feelings is when she zooms into the war. The war is the cause of the conflict, and therefore a close description of it shows how frightening and scary it is. " Bombs were dropped on Tokyo every day and night, like falling rain." The author creates a violent scene which is a huge contrast from the image created before.
        
               Lastly, the lonely image presented at the end adds on to the description before. " He was still patting the tombstone tenderly as the cherry blossoms fell on the grave, like snowflakes." This image brings a chill as the story ends. The author is like reminding readers to remember the sacrifice of the three elephants. Also, the falling cherry blossoms are like telling the elephants to rest in peace which brings a sadness to it.

               In conclusion, Yukio Tsuchiya presents different emotions in parts of the story to show the difference in settings by creating contrasts. She uses gentle and peaceful wordings to introduce readers into the story while using violence and frightening images to show the climax of it.  As a reader, I feel I can read better into the story, and analyze better about it by using the descriptions. A excellent writing piece with detailed descriptions can always insert readers right into the story.