Faithful Elephants Blog Post

            The story, “Faithful Elephants: A true Story of Animals, People, and War,” by Yukio Tsuchiya, is about three elephants named Tonky, Wanly, and John. These three elephants lived in a zoo called the Ueno Zoo during world war two. These three elephants had to be killed, sadly, because the army commanded them to, they were afraid the elephants were going to run wild through the city. When the time came, each elephant was starved to death. It was a very hard time for the zoo keepers.

            It was very hard for the zoo keepers because they cared for the elephants for so long. For example, when it was john’s turn to die, they just wanted to get over with it by poisoning his food so he didn’t have to suffer from starvation. However, John was far to smart to eat poisoned potatoes, so the zoo keepers decided, “As it seems to be no other way, we must inject poison into his body.” They brought a syringe and tried to poison him with a needle, however, that didn’t work either because his skin was too thick. Thus, they ended up starving him to death. The zoo keepers were heartbroken.

            When it came to Wanly and Tonky, the zoo keepers were devastated. Tonky and Wanly had to also be starved to death. The zoo keepers loved them so much that they were willing to send them to Sendai, but they were afraid bombs were going to be dropped there too.  In addition, their trainer loved them so much that when they did their famous Bonzai trick he fed them food because he couldn’t stand to see them suffer anymore. “Oh, Tonky, Oh, Wanly!” he wailed, “Here!” he said sobbing, and clung to their thin legs, “Eat your food! Please drink. Drink your water!” Moreover, the zoo keepers pretended not to se anything, nor did they try to stop him, they too wanted them to survive while they could. Furthermore, they and the trainer could no longer bare to see the elephants suffer anymore, in result, stopped visiting them. Consequently, the elephants died while doing the Bonzai trick. “Stop the war! Stop all wars!” implored the zoo keepers when they found elephant’s thin bodies in their cage. This proves that they didn’t want the elephants to die, not like this. In addition, the zoo keeper telling the story also felt the same way because he was also crying.

            In conclusion, the zoo keepers did care for all the elephants very much. They did all they could to keep them alive, fed them, gave them water, even tried to let them die painlessly with poison (instead of starving them). In addition, they did what the elephants would’ve wanted, to be buried under the monument, peacefully. I also think that their death was probably really hard for not only the zoo keepers, but the visitors that came to the zoo just to see the elephants. I think that they would miss them doing the Bonzai trick. Adding on, I think their death was taken the hardest by the trainer because he trained and took care of them for most of their life. In the same way, I would have felt broken too if my cat, Bella, was forced to die of starvation. Overall, their death was very devastating to everyone.  

Zap by Paul Fleischman

Zap

During the summer I read “Zap” by Paul Fleischman. When I first started the book I was confused until I realized that it was a play. However, this wasn’t an ordinary play, it was a play that was in the audience’s control and each audience had their own remote control. Whenever they pressed the “zap” button it made a sound, and when there is more that 5 sounds the play changes to a different play. In fact, it’s very similar to watching TV.

There are seven different plays, The English Mystery, The Comedy, The Russian Play, Shakespeare’s Richard III, The Performance Art Monologue, The Avant-Gardes Play, and The Southern Play. The English Mystery Play was about nine friends hanging out and having a good time. However, slowly, one by one, those people get murdered by a mystery killer. They continued to keep accusing one person until they died, and then the next, and so on. The Comedy is about a man named Irv Weinstein that tries to get back at the guy that published a book on his life. His friend Sammy helped him by giving him dating advice so he could make the guy’s wife leave him. Sooner or later, the plan works but has a little problem; the guy’s wife wants to move in with Irv. The Russian Play is about a man named Nikolai and his wife Irina moving into a new home. Nikolai picked it so he can learn to live like his ancestors, grow their own food and farm his own field etc. Shakespeare’s Richard III is about a king named Richard III who later on gets married to Lady Anne. The Performance Art Monologue is about a lady named Marsha who talks to the audience about the plays. She gives her opinion on the plays and some times talks about how weird the actors are. The Avant-Gardes Play is about a man and a woman in a hotel room with dead people on the floor. They don’t seem to mind it, the man was focused more on the brochure and the lady seems to be more focused on her crossword puzzle. They don’t talk too much about the corpse; or about anything at all. And lastly, The Southern Play is about a man named Aaron who wants to move north of Catfish Crossing, Mississippi to continue doing what he loves, being an artist. However, his father will not let him go, nor will his sister. On the other hand, when Aaron finally convinces his dad to let him go, he misses the train, every time.

Overall, I think Zap was a good book, it was funny and entertaining. In fact, I felt like it was me controlling the plays because every time I got bored it went to a more interesting play. For example, when they had Shakespeare Richard III playing, I wanted to stop reading, but then the audience changed the play. Although the book was good, it was also confusing because I never got the ending to each play, the audiences would always change it making me miss some of the play. In addition, I thought that when a play just came back on, I didn’t know what they were talking about, they would be talking about something different than before. All in all, the book was good and made me feel like I was watching TV.