THe ELEPHANT VANISHES

  THE ELEPHANT VANISHES

INTRODUCTION:

 The Elephant Vanishes  is a collection of 17 short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The stories were written between 1980 and 1991. There Original title is  象の消滅 (Zō no shōmetsu).

Like other stories in this collection, “

The Elephant Vanishes” focuses on a strange incident that leaves its protagonist disoriented. An unnamed narrator tells the story of how an aged elephant and its keeper mysteriously disappear one night from his town's elephant house. 

  The narrator, who is the protagonist of the story, recalls the events leading up to the elephant's sudden vanishing, the news coverage of the incident, and the futile efforts of the townspeople to find the elephant and the keeper.

  He also discusses the strange circumstances of the elephant's disappearance, which indicate that the elephant apparently vanished into thin air. After meeting a magazine editor who is a potential love interest, the narrator ends up talking about how he witnessed the elephant shrinking or the keeper becoming bigger or both on the night of their disappearance.

THEME :

Imbalance-

 One of the major themes of the story is the idea of things being out of balance. This theme is introduced when the narrator tells the editor about the importance of unity in kitchen design,  Even the most beautifully designed item dies if it is out of balance with its surroundings. The narrator later emphasizes the importance of balance between a creature and its environment when he talks about witnessing the change in the elephant's size in relation to the keeper's size. He states that the balance in size between the two has become more equal, because the elephant has shrunk or the keeper has gotten bigger, or both.

  Following the disappearance of the elephant and the keeper, the narrator again expresses the idea that things around me have lost their proper balance.

THE POINT OF VIEW :

The story is told from the first-person point of view, with an unnamed narrator  and also they relating the events.

CONFLICT:

 The primary conflict in the story is internal, with the narrator trying to make sense of the events immediately preceding the elephant's disappearance…