Faithful Elephants Blog Post

“Faithful Elephants,” By Sam Griffith

Wars affect everyone, not just people on the battlefield. Soldiers are shot, bombs are dropped, but the short story, “Faithful Elephants,” gave an uncommon perspective to one of the many far speared tragedies of war. It tells the story of the Ueno zoo in japan during World War Two and how it was forced to kill the animals it housed in fear of a bombs dropping on the zoo, letting the animals will wild all over the city only causing more havoc. It shows the effect this had on both the animals and the trainer of them.

The first effect the war had on the Ueno zoo was that the animals had to be killed. The first animals where able to be put down peacefully and humanely, the elephants on the other hand could not be penetrated by a needle. Eventually they decided how they would have to kill the animals. “The keepers reluctantly decided to starve him to death.” They began with one elephant named john they slowly watched him die. Then the killed the last two, Tonky and Wanly. All throughout their slow deaths they stayed faithful. Looking up at their trainers with pleading eyes they had complete trust that they would feed them as they used to.

The war also hurt the trainers who cared for their elephants with such a passion it would appear the elephants were his own children. You can see this in the beginning where it tells of a graveyard built for all of the animals, and the trainer slowly polishing the elephant’s gravestones. You can also see the crushing effect this had on his heart when he was starving the elephants and eventually broke down. “ ‘Oh, Tonky! Oh, Wanly!’ he Wailed and he dashed to the food shed. ‘Here!’ he said, sobbing, and clung to their thin legs. ‘Eat your food! Please drink. Drink your water!”

The depressing Story, “Faithful elephants,” makes readers question, “has anyone close to me been effected by a war?” The strong and emotional story of Tonky and Wanly also imposed another important question, “What can I do to prevent other horrible disasters like this from happening?”    

One of the many themes in the book, " Money Hungry," by Sharon G. Flake  is the constant struggle for money. As well as the constant struggle to escape the projects. It explains how different characters have different ways of gaining cash.

It first introduces the character, Strawberry. Strawberry does nearly anything for money. She sells pencils. She sells valentines chocolates from the previous year. She helps clean old ladies' homes. She does anything to get her a dollar. At one point she steals fifty dollars from her best friend, although when she came home and thought about it she felt guilty and returned the cash. She even states that she loves the smell of her money. The fact that she used to have to live on the streets with her mom motivates her to get as much as she can possibly get and save it.

The second character that appears is Strawberry's mother. Strawberry's mother is not like Strawberry in the way that Strawberry does odd jobs for money. Strawberry's mother works two jobs and attempts to save all her cash for a new house out of the projects. She also drives an extremely cheep car and never repairs it. even when it begins to fall apart. A difference between Strawberry and her mother is that her mother is also trying to help others. Strawberry is always thinking about herself in the struggles for money. But her mom will pick up kids who have no bus fair and drive them to school in her, old, beaten up car.

  
A third character caught up in the struggle for money mr. Kim. mr. Kim runs a Korean food truck. He operates with only the work done by him and his wife. He is constantly teased and made fun of for being an asian man in a black neighborhood. As a horribly offending joke teenagers accuse him of cooking their pet dog. But despite all of these terribly mean pranks mr. Kim simply ignores their foolishness and finishes helping the next costumer. By ignoring all of the distractions mr. Kim keeps business going and keeps food on the table for his family.

In this book Sharon G. Flake tells the hard story of living in the projects and scrambling for money.
And how people adapt this kind of lifestyle