The Elephant Vanishes

The Elephant Vanishes is written by Haruki Murakami. Haruki Murakami (born January 12, 1949) is a Japanese writer. His books and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country. His work has received numerous awards, including the 

1. World Fantasy Award, 

2.The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, 

3.The Franz Kafka Prize, 

4. The Jerusalem Prize.

The Elephant Vanishes” is the story of an elderly zoo elephant who mysteriously vanishes after being taken in by a suburban Japanese community when the town’s zoo closes, as well as this event’s lasting effects on the story’s narrator. The narrative shifts back in forth in time between the present (post-disappearance) and the past (pre-disappearance).

Before the elephant vanishes, the mayor’s initial decision to take ownership of the animal is met with opposition from the townspeople due to financial and safety concerns. After moving into the makeshift elephant house in town, the elephant is largely ignored by the community. The elephant leads a lonely existence shackled to a concrete slab, its only solace being the close friendship it shares with the old zookeeper who cares for the animal. The narrator is fascinated by the mysterious bond and system of communication that the elephant and its keeper share, and often peers into the elephant house to observe how the pair interacts in private. 

One day, the narrator reads the morning paper and finds that the elephant and keeper have inexplicably vanished from the elephant house without warning. He realizes that he was likely the last person to see the pair before they disappeared, as he had been watching them from outside the elephant house the night before. The narrator becomes obsessed with the disappearance and, due to the lack of evidence suggesting a break-in or an escape, believes that the elephant must have vanished into thin air. This troubling conclusion frustrates the narrator and alienates him from his community, which believes the media’s narrative that it was, in fact, an escape. The townspeople soon forget about the elephant, but the narrator remains fixated on the mystifying event.

A few months later, the narrator meets a woman at a business party to whom he confesses his perspective on the elephant’s disappearance. He admits that he believes the elephant and keeper vanished, and that he was probably the last one to have seen them. The narrator also reveals a bizarre moment that he witnessed: on the night before the disappearance, he looked into the elephant house and saw that the size difference between the elephant and the keeper had somehow diminished. The narrator recalls feeling an unsettling shift in reality in that moment. The woman is confused and put off by the narrator’s strange account, and the two never meet again.

The narrator continues to be consumed by the inexplicable change in size between the elephant and the keeper, as well as by their strange disappearance. Although everyone else seems to have easily forgotten about the case, the narrator feels that his own perceptions can no longer be trusted. A sense of chaotic imbalance has disrupted the natural order and overtaken his sense of normality in the wake of the elephant who vanished.

some important analysis of story :-

Every literary piece consist or reflect something about time, feelings, reality of particular period, basic idea about nature and god, and one of the most important of any literary aspect is somewhere past reflect the present time and present also seems like past.in this same way this story has some basic idea about human and animal, human being and imbalance.so let's evaluate some central idea about the story.

-Meaning of disappearing of elephant:

This story is based on idea about narrator's own isolation of feeling. it consist very significant thought about human being and nature, human being and society. The moral of the story lies on one unbelievable event of disappearing  of animal.in this time of technology and science it is harder to believe that elephant and it's keeper are disappear but it is metaphor that MURAKAMI used in story. By this event Murakami describe the inner feeling of narrator. The narrator of the story is the eye witness of the disappearing event. Author wants to describe how narrator is lonely and imbalance in his life. in fact it is modern idea of our life style.

-Human being VS Nature:

Another importance lies on human being and nature. Now a day we all are suffering so many natural crisis, specially corona virus, gradually nature is disappear cause of human being. our extra use of science and technology create so many pollution. Human tries to harm the order or chain of nature.in the story of Elephant Vanishes Murakami also put the event of disappearing of elephant also seems like disappearing of nature among the human society.

-Imbalance of life :-

The story is written in first person narration form. Story begins with the introduction of the narrator. He is the person who will become eye witness of disappearing of elephant and keeper and he tries to convey every one that he was the victim of the event but no one can believe him. Not only the other people but also his girlfriend not interested in his talk. Trough the time passes every one gradually forget the event. No one interest in anybody's life. This reflect the modern idea of time, surreal idea of time.

conclusion:-

In nutshell, we can say that The Elephant Vanishes is very significant and surreal story. Murakami valso use the elements of disappeared, it's bring conflict in the story.

Word count :- 946