Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya

“Faithful Elephants”

            The short story “Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya, is about the tragic deaths of Tonky, Wanly, and John, 3 elephants in Ueno Zoo.  The government ordered to have the dangerous animals killed in case a bombed dropped and the animals would be let loose.  This story teacher the reader that war affects not only the soldiers, but also the civilians and the things around them.

            When people  think of what is being affected in war, they think of the obvious.  “Faithful Elephants” helps show that many divers places are also being touched by war.  “If the cages were broken… it would be terrible! Therefore by command of the army, all the lions, tigers, leopards, bears and big snakes were poisoned to death.”  If it weren’t for the war, all of the animals would be alive.   Once it was time for the elephants, they started by trying to put poison in John’s potatoes.  When that didn’t work, they tried injecting him, but the needle broke.  Finally they resolved to starve him.  John died after 17 days.  The same method was used for Tonky and Wanly, and it took them two long and dreadful weeks for them to die.

            Because the zookeepers were attached to the elephants, the elephants passing too pained them.  It was torturous for them to watch them starve.  “He [the trainer] could only pace in front of the cage and man, ‘You poor, poor, pitiful elephants!’”  What the author is illustrating by this is that in times of war, many people lose close ones. All of the workers were devastated when they couldn’t feed them, and everyone in the zoo came to tears once the elephants were finally gone.  “The rest of the zookeepers ran to the elephants’ cage and stumbled in… Everyone burst into teas, then stroked the elephants’ legs and trunks in sorrow.”

            This shows how ordinary people and innocent animals can be affected in the middle of war.  “Faithful Elephants” reminds us that war hurts many people, but also that you don’t have to be directly in a battlefield to be ruined by war.  The author made it clear that war causes death and sorrow in obvious and less obvious ways.

           

The Great Gatsby 9/18/13 Lilith Valentin 811

The Great Gatsby

     The "Great Gatsby" is a story of a young man named Nick Carraway who moves to West Egg into 

a rented house.  His neighbor Gatsby throws amazing parties at his mansion every weekend, always many people attending.  It's at one of these parties that Nick met Gatsby.  They soon became good friends.  Near Carraway's house lived his cousin Daisy, who he found out to be Gatsby's ex lover.  This also revealed things such as Gatsby's true identity and his life story.  A life lesson that the author teaches is not to judge someone by appearances.

     There were many rumors about Gatsby.  Some said he was a murderer, a thief, or a liar.  Because of his mysterious ways some were even afraid of him.  But really, he was a generous, kind, approachable gentleman.  Carrway also was one to judge Gatsby.  He thought he was a rich kid all his life and had never worked an ounce.  In reality, Gatsby was born into a poor family of farmers.  He spent most of his life working at the farm, at docks, and in war.  So what Gatsby really was is completely opposite of most of the rumors.

     In conclusion, I think that people were really quick to judge Gatsby. The author used him as an example, but these assumptions that people make based on nothing are real-life situations.  They made false stories about who he was, what he had done, and where he came from.  But no matter what the stories were, Gatsby remained a good man.