Post by Mina Kaneko on Nov 18, 2015 3:52:27 GMT
The elephant and its disappearance may reflect any number of things that are imperceptible to the eye: things that are spiritual, metaphysical – the complete opposite of the “pragmatic,” concrete objects of our world. My first thoughts are that the elephant represents time, aging, and dying – on page 414, Murakami writes: “I had the feeling that a different, chilling kind of time was flowing through the elephant house – but nowhere else.” We are told early on that the elephant is incredibly old; instead of having the elephant die, however, Murakami inserts a more metaphysical occurrence: he vanishes, without explanation. Furthermore, he writes that whatever was happening to the caretaker and the elephant seemed to be “enveloping” them, and the two appeared to be “gladly giving themselves over to this new order” (415). He seems to be describing not so much time and dying in the literal, physical sense of the word, but highlighting the mystery and open-ended possibility of what occurs beyond our senses and knowledge.
The protagonist’s conversation with the woman he meets also dies when he brings up the issue of the elephant – talking about an elephant in and of itself shouldn’t necessarily quell a discussion, but he refers to the topic as being “closed,” not open to further discussion; there’s something beyond just a mysterious event in the news, something deeper and greater than mere circumstance. In the concluding paragraphs, he describes a “balance” inside him having broken down – things that don’t have answers, like life or death (or the afterlife) themselves, things that we can’t really know or are beyond our understanding – though we can have our own beliefs, of course. After talking about how the elephant has affected him, he then continues about resuming his pragmatic life – this is a stark contrast to everything he feels internally (but cannot do anything about), and points to a kind of absurdity of everyday life that contrasts with the things of the spiritual world.
Discussion question: What does the caretaker represent? How do you interpret the strong bond between the elephant and the caretaker?
The protagonist’s conversation with the woman he meets also dies when he brings up the issue of the elephant – talking about an elephant in and of itself shouldn’t necessarily quell a discussion, but he refers to the topic as being “closed,” not open to further discussion; there’s something beyond just a mysterious event in the news, something deeper and greater than mere circumstance. In the concluding paragraphs, he describes a “balance” inside him having broken down – things that don’t have answers, like life or death (or the afterlife) themselves, things that we can’t really know or are beyond our understanding – though we can have our own beliefs, of course. After talking about how the elephant has affected him, he then continues about resuming his pragmatic life – this is a stark contrast to everything he feels internally (but cannot do anything about), and points to a kind of absurdity of everyday life that contrasts with the things of the spiritual world.
Discussion question: What does the caretaker represent? How do you interpret the strong bond between the elephant and the caretaker?
