World War II was a very deadly and destructive war that killed millions and affected many more, from the wives of soldiers to innocent animals. "Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People and War", a short story by Yukio Tsuchiya, tells the story of a trio of zoo elephants that must be killed along with all the zoo's other animals. The army fears that is bombs fall on the zoo, the animals could escape, wreak havoc and harm humans. The story takes place in the Ueno Zoo, in Tokyo, Japan, and is told mostly as a story to the author by a zookeeper who was present during the story. It's a heartbreaking story in which the zookeepers must starve their own elephants, their own friends. I think this story really shows how war is unfair requires innocent sacrifices, and how these sacrifices hurt everybody around them.
In a time of war, innocence is rare. Even children realize how serious and horrible the situation is. "(Page 2, lines 18-21) Squeezing out what little strength they had left, Tonky and Wanly made their appeal. [...] they did their banzai trick. Surely their friend would reward them with food and water as he used to do." The war takes away the elephant's innocence as demonstrated in this quote, which shows how the elephants are confused about why their trainers are starving them and how they are being killed without doing anything wrong. The elephants and other zoo animals are being sacrificed to protect others, but it's really unjust. The story demonstrates how war isn't fair: in a time of war uninvolved people are killed for no reason. The death of these elephants represents the death of the millions of rather insignificant people and animals that wars cause. War has an effect on everybody, even the most innocent of uninvolved people.
As said in the previous paragraph, war has an effect on practically every single person even just barely involved in it, even those who just live in a place where it takes place. It also hurts everybody, emotionally or physically, and usually both. The war and death of the elephants deeply emotionally hurts the zookeepers, because they were so close to these animals. "(Page 3, lines Still clinging to the elephants, the zookeepers raised their fists to the sky and implored, 'Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!' " This quote shows how much the death of the elephants hurt the zookeepers who had to starve them themselves against their will. In the quote, the trainers are clinging on to the elephants as if they were their lifeline, and in some ways they were, because they symbolized hope that the war would end. They yell at the enemy planes because they are furious that this foolish war cost them their friends. The elephants meant so much more to the trainers than just animals: they were like children to them. Even decades later, the trainer is still nostalgic and still remembers the death of these elephants who were such a big part of his life, because their death left a big scar in him and all the trainers. The death of someone/something you love stays with you your whole life. Wars destroy everything in their path, from people to animals to friendships.
Wars are started for a reason, sometimes a good one, sometimes not, but they affect so many people that the deaths of innocents outshadows the fight for justice that a war usually is. War is unfair and requires innocent sacrifices which hurt everybody around them, but are some of these sacrifices really worth it? What are the chances that the animals escaped and harmed humans? If the roles were switched and it was humans that could escape and harm the animals, would the innocent humans be put to death? Wars are like a disease: they burst into your life and spread to everyone around you, scarring them for the rest of their lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment