Saturday, September 28, 2013

Elements of Poetry

POETRY ASSUMPTIONS
Readers of poetry often bring with them many related assumptions:
  • That a poem is to be read for its "message,"
  • That this message is "hidden" in the poem,
  • The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which naturally do not mean what they say but stand for something else,
  • You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.
There are no easy ways to dispel these biases. Poetry is difficult because very often its language is indirect. But so is experience - those things we think, feel, and do. The lazy reader wants to be told things and usually avoids poetry because it demands commitment and energy. Moreover, much of what poetry has to offer is not in the form of hidden meanings. Many poets like to "play" with the sound of language or offer an emotional insight by describing what they see in highly descriptive language. In fact, there can many different ways to enjoy poetry; this reflects the many different styles and objectives of poets themselves. For an overview of the many ways to read a poem. Finally, if you are the type to give up when something is unclear, just relax! Like we just said, there can be many different approaches to examining poetry; often these approaches (like looking for certain poetic devices or examining the meaning of a specific phrase) do not require a complete and exhaustive analysis of a poem. So, enjoy what you do understand!

FIRST APPROACHES
Read the poem (many students neglect this step). Identify the speaker and the situation. Feel free to read it more than once! Read the sentences literally. Use your prose reading skills to clarify what the poem is about. Read each line separately, noting unusual words and associations. Look up words you are unsure of and struggle with word associations that may not seem logical to you. Note any changes in the form of the poem that might signal a shift in point of view. Study the structure of the poem, including its rhyme and rhythm (if any). Re-read the poem slowly, thinking about what message and emotion the poem communicates to you.

STRUCTURE and POETRY

An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the stanza structure or style of a poem. Generally speaking, structure has to do with the overall organization of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound. Again, many modern poems may not have any identifiable structure (i.e. they are free verse), so don't panic if you can't find it!


STANZAS: Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line from other stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of lines. Thus:
  • couplet (2 lines)
  • tercet (3 lines)
  • quatrain (4 lines)
  • cinquain (5 lines)
  • sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
  • septet (7 lines)
  • octave (8 lines) 

FORM
: A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme and/or metrical pattern, but it can still be labeled according to its form or style. Here are the three most common types of poems according to form:
1. Lyric Poetry: It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet) who expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most poems, especially modern ones, are lyric poems. 

2. Narrative Poem:
 It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot line of a story [i.e. the introduction of conflict and characters, rising action, climax and the denouement].

3. Descriptive Poem: It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional, it is more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more personal and introspective. 
In a sense, almost all poems, whether they have consistent patterns of sound and/or structure, or are free verse, are in one of the three categories above. Or, of course, they may be a combination of 2 or 3 of the above styles! Here are some more types of poems that are sub-types of the three styles above:

Ode: It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.


Elegy: It is a lyric poem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with a eulogy.]It has no set metric or stanzaic pattern, but it usually begins by reminiscing about the dead person, then laments the reason for the death, and then resolves the grief by concluding that death leads to immortality. It often uses "apostrophe" (calling out to the dead person) as a literary technique. It can have a fairly formal style, and sound similar to an ode.

Sonnet: It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic kinds of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or Elizabethan/English) sonnet. The Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a concluding couplet (two lines). The Petrarchan sonnet tends to divide the thought into two parts (argument and conclusion); the Shakespearean, into four (the final couplet is the summary).

Ballad: It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A ballad is usually organized into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple rhythm structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.

Epic: It is a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero.    

Qualities of an Epic Poem:
·         narrative poem of great scope; dealing with the founding of a nation or some other heroic theme requires a dignified theme requires an organic unity requires orderly progress of the action always has a heroic figure or figures involves supernatural forces
·         written in deliberately ceremonial style
  
Other types of poems include:
Haiku: It has an unrhymed verse form having three lines (a tercet) and usually 5,7,5 syllables, respectively. It's usually considered a lyric poem.

Limerick: It has a very structured poem, usually humorous & composed of five lines (a cinquain), in an aabba rhyming pattern; beat must be anapestic (weak, weak, strong) with 3 feet in lines 1, 2, & 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 & 4. It's usually a narrative poem based upon a short and often ribald anecdote.

SOUND PATTERNS
Three other elements of poetry are rhyme schememeter (i.e. regular rhythm) and word sounds (like alliteration). These are sometimes collectively called sound play because they take advantage of the per formative, spoken nature of poetry.
 
RHYME

Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common kind of rhyme is the end rhyme, which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is usually identified with lower case letters, and a new letter is used to identify each new end sound. Take a look at the rhyme scheme for the following poem:
 
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in 
green.
He drew his sword while I just
 stood,
And realized I'd been 
seen.
 
The rhyme scheme of the poem is abab.
Internal rhyme occurs in the middle of a line, as in these lines from Coleridge, "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white" ("The Ancient Mariner"). Remember that most modern poems do not have rhyme.

NOTERhyme (above) and rhythm (below) are two totally different concepts!


RHYTHM AND METER

Meter: the systematic regularity in rhythm; this systematic rhythm (or sound pattern) is usually identified by examining the type of "foot" and the number of feet.
1. Poetic Foot: The traditional line of metered poetry contains a number of rhythmical units, which are called feet. The feet in a line are distinguished as a recurring pattern of two or three syllables("apple" has 2 syllables, "banana" has 3 syllables, etc.). The pattern, or foot, is designated according to the number of syllables contained, and the relationship in each foot between the strong and weak syllables.Thus:

__ = a stressed (or strong, or LOUD) syllable
U = an unstressed (or 
weak, or quiet) syllable
 
In other words, any line of poetry with a systematic rhythm has a certain number of feet, and each foot has two or three syllables with a constant beat pattern.
a.     Iamb (Iambic) - weak syllable followed by strong syllable. [Note that the pattern is sometimes fairly hard to maintain, as in the third foot.]
b.     Trochee (Trochaic): strong syllable followed by a weak syllable.
c.     Anapest (Anapestic): two weak syllables followed by a strong syllable.

e.g.
In her 
room at the prow of the house
Where light 
breaks, and the windows are tossed...

From "The Writer", by Richard Wilbur

d.     Dactyl (Dactylic): a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables.


Here's another (silly) example of dactylic rhythm.
DDDA was an / archer, who / shot at a / frog
DDDB was a / butcher, and / had a great / dog
DDDC was a / captain, all / covered with / lace
DDDD was a / drunkard, and / had a red / face.
e.     Spondee (Spondaic): two strong syllables (not common as lines, but appears as a foot). A spondee usually appears at the end of a line.


2. The Number of Feet
: The second part of meter is the number of feet contained in a line.
Thus:
one foot=monometer
two feet=dimeter
three feet=trimeter
four feet=tetrameter
five feet=pentameter
six feet=hexameter (when hexameter is in iambic rhythm, it is called an alexandrine)

Poems with an identifiable meter are therefore identified by the type of feet (e.g. iambic) and the number of feet in a line (e.g. pentameter). The following line is iambic pentameter because it (1) has five feet [pentameter], and (2) each foot has two syllables with the stress on the second syllable [iambic].
That time | of year | thou mayst | in me | behold
Thus, you will hear meter identified as iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, and so on.


3. Irregularity:
 Many metered poems in English avoid perfectly regular rhythm because it is monotonous. Irregularities in rhythm add interest and emphasis to the lines. In this line:
The first foot substitutes a trochee for an iamb. Thus, the basic iambic pentameter is varied with the opening trochee.

4. Blank Verse: Any poetry that does have a 
set metrical pattern (usually iambic pentameter), butdoes not have rhyme, is blank verse. Shakespeare frequently used unrhymed iambic pentameter in his plays; his works are an early example of blank verse.
5. Free Verse: Most modern poetry no longer follows strict rules of meter or rhyme, especially throughout an entire poem. Free verse, frankly, has no rules about meter or rhyme whatsoever! [In other words, blank verse has rhythm, but no rhyme, while free verse has neither rhythm nor rhyme.] So, you may find it difficult to find regular iambic pentameter in a modern poem, though you might find it in particular lines. Modern poets do like to throw in the occasional line or phrase of metered poetry, particularly if they’re trying to create a certain effect. Free verse can also apply to a lack of a formal verse structure.

How do I know if a poem has meter? How do I determine the meter?
To maintain a consistent meter, a poet has to choose words that fit. For example, if a poet wants to write iambic poetry, s/he has to choose words that have a naturally iambic rhythm. Words like betrayand persuade will work in an iambic poem because they are naturally iambic. They sound silly any other way. However, candle and muscle will work best in a trochaic poem, because their natural emphasis is on the first syllable. (However, a poet can use trochaic words if s/he places a one syllable word in front of them. This often leads to poetic feet ending in the middle of words - after one syllable - rather than the end.) It's not surprising that most modern poetry is not metered, because it is very restrictive and demanding.
Determining meter is usually a process of elimination. Start reading everything in iambic by emphasizing every second syllable. 80 to 90% of metered poetry is iambic. If it sounds silly or strange, because many of the poem's words do not sound natural, then try trochaic, anapestic or dactylic rhythms. If none of these sounds natural, then you probably do not have metered poetry at all (ie. it's free verse).
If there are some lines that sound metered, but some that don't, the poem has an irregular rhythm.

WORD SOUNDS

Another type of sound play is the emphasis on individual sounds and words:
Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds on the same line or stanza - Big bad Bob bounced bravely.

Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds (anywhere in the middle or end of a line or stanza) - Tilting at windmills

Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds (anywhere in the middle or end of a line or stanza) - And all the air a solemn stillness holds. (T. Gray)

Onomatopoeia: words that sound like that which they describe - Boom! Crash! Pow! Quack! Moo!Caress...

Repetition
: the repetition of entire lines or phrases to emphasize key thematic ideas.

Parallel Stucture: a form of repetition where the order of verbs and nouns is repeated; it may involve exact words, but it more importantly repeats sentence structure - "I came, I saw, I conquered".

MEANING and POETRY
I said earlier that poetry is not always about hidden or indirect meanings (sometimes called meaning play). Nevertheless, if often is a major part of poetry, so here some of the important things to remember: 

CONCRETENESS and PARTICULARITY
In general, poetry deals with particular things in concrete language, since our emotions most readily respond to these things. From the poem's particular situation, the reader may then generalize; the generalities arise by implication from the particular. In other words, a poem is most often concrete and particular; the "message," if there is any, is general and abstract; it's implied by the images.
Images, in turn, suggest meanings beyond the mere identity of the specific object. Poetry "plays" with meaning when it identifies resemblances or makes comparisons between things; common examples of this "figurative" comparison include:
  • ticking of clock = mortality
  • hardness of steel = determination 
  • white = peace or purity
Such terms as connotation, simile, metaphor, allegory, and symbol are aspects of this comparison. Such expressions are generally called figurative or metaphorical language.
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
Word meanings are not only restricted to dictionary meanings. The full meaning of a word includes both the dictionary definition and the special meanings and associations a word takes in a given phrase or expression. For example, a tiger is a carnivorous animal of the cat family. This is the literal or denotative meaning. But we have certain associations with the word: sinuous movement, jungle violence, and aggression. These are the suggestive, figurative or connotative meanings.

FIGURATIVE/CONNOTATIVE DEVICES
  1. Simile is the rhetorical term used to designate the most elementary form of resemblances: most similes are introduced by "like" or "as." These comparisons are usually between dissimilar situations or objects that have something in common, such as "My love is like a red, red rose."
  2. metaphor leaves out "like" or "as" and implies a direct comparison between objects or situations. "All flesh is grass."
  3. Synecdoche is a form of metaphor, which in mentioning an important (and attached) part signifies the whole (e.g. "hands" for labour).
  4. Metonymy is similar to synecdoche; it's a form of metaphor allowing an object closely associated (but unattached) with an object or situation to stand for the thing itself (e.g. the crown or throne for a king or the bench for the judicial system).
  5. symbol is like a simile or metaphor with the first term left out. "My love is like a red, red rose" is a simile. If, through persistent identification of the rose with the beloved woman, we may come to associate the rose with her and her particular virtues. At this point, the rose would become a symbol.
  6. Allegory can be defined as a one to one correspondence between a series of abstract ideas and a series of images or pictures presented in the form of a story or a narrative. For example, George Orwell's Animal Farm is an extended allegory that represents the Russian Revolution through a fable of a farm and its rebellious animals.
  7. Personification occurs when you treat abstractions or inanimate objects as human, that is, giving them human attributes, powers, or feelings (e.g., "nature wept" or "the wind whispered many truths to me").
  8. Irony takes many forms. Most basically, irony is a figure of speech in which actual intent is expressed through words that carry the opposite meaning.
    • Paradox: usually a literal contradiction of terms or situations
    • Situational Irony: an unmailed letter
    • Dramatic Irony: audience has more information or greater perspective than the characters
    • Verbal Irony: saying one thing but meaning another
      • Overstatement (hyperbole)
      • Understatement (meiosis)
      • Sarcasm
Irony may be a positive or negative force. It is most valuable as a mode of perception that assists the poet to see around and behind opposed attitudes, and to see the often conflicting interpretations that come from our examination of life. 

POETRY AS A LANGUAGE OF INDIRECTION
Thus, if we recognize that much of the essential quality of our experience is more complex than a simple denotative statement can describe, then we must recognize the value of the poet's need to search for a language agile enough to capture the complexity of that experience. Consider this four-line stanza:
O Western wind, when wilt thou blow
That the small rain down can rain?
Christ, that my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again!
The center of the poem is the lover's desire to be reunited with his beloved (lines 3 and 4). But the full meaning of the poem depends on the first two lines also. Obviously, the lover associates his grief with the wind and rain, but the poet leaves to implication, to indirection, just how the lover's situation and the wind and rain are related. We note that they are related in several ways: the need for experiencing and manifesting love is an inherent need, like nature's need for rain; in a word, love, like the wind and rain, is natural. Secondly, the lover is living in a kind of drought or arid state that can only be slaked by the soothing presence of the beloved. Thirdly, the rising of the wind and the coming of the rain can neither be controlled nor foretold exactly, and human affairs, like the lover's predicament, are subject to the same sort of chance.

Undoubtedly, too, there are associations with specific words, like "Western" or "small rain" that the reader is only half aware of but which nonetheless contribute to meaning. These associations or connotations afford a few indirections that enrich the entire poem. For example, "small rain" at once describes the kind of rain that the lover wants to fall and suggests the joy and peace of lover's tears, and "small" alone might suggest the daintiness or femininity of the beloved.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Elephant – Slawomir Mrozek

The Elephant Slawomir Mrozek
At the Surface level, ‘The Elephant’ is a simple story about how a small polish zoo attempts to cut costs by fabricating an elephant, rather than adding real elephant to the Zoo’s collection. But at another level, ‘The Elephant’ is satirical allegory. This is aimed at the communist government that controlled Poland at the time the story was written (1958).

Genre:                          Contemporary realistic fiction with traditional political features.
Language:                   Contemporary.
Technical device:        Satirical allegory.
Theme:                        Deception and its repercussions.
Conflict:                      Man versus Man, Man versus State.
Setting:                        Zoo in Poland/ A provincial town in communist Poland.
Type of Plot:                Fable, allegory, satire.
Principal Characters:             The director, a party of schoolchildren, teacher.
Point of View:                         The third-person omniscient narrative focuses on the ambitious and self-serving director of the Zoological Gardens in a provincial Polish town.


Satire: Literary works those critics/ridicules human follies, institutions, government by depicting it in a humorous, sarcastic, or scornful way. The purpose of satire is often to teach a lesson or encourage change.

Or

A literary mode based on criticism of people and society through ridicule. The satirist aims to reduce the practices attacked by laughing scornfully at them--and being witty enough to allow the reader to laugh, also. Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are almost always present. The satirist may insert serious statements of value or desired behaviour, but most often he relies on an implicit moral code, understood by his audience and paid lip service by them. The satirist's goal is to point out the hypocrisy of his target in the hope that either the target or the audience will return to a real following of the code. Thus, satire is inescapably moral even when no explicit values are promoted in the work, for the satirist works within the framework of a widely spread value system. Many of the techniques of satire are devices of comparison, to show the similarity or contrast between two things. A list of incongruous items, an oxymoron, metaphors, and so forth are examples

Allegory: An allegory is a simple story, such as a fable or parable, whose major purpose is to teach a moral lesson. An allegory can always be read on two levels – one literal, the other symbolic. The underlying meaning can be parallel to, but different from, the surface meaning.

Or

A figurative work in which a surface narrative carries a secondary, symbolic or metaphorical meaning.

Or

Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, animals, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Such a tale is said to be didactic in its style.

Point of View: The third-person omniscient narrative focuses on the ambitious and self-serving director of the Zoological Gardens in a provincial Polish town.

Third Person Omniscient:
This style is often frowned upon, and comes under fire from many writing style authorities. Third person omniscient is not to be confused with using multiple viewpoints. A writer can have multiple viewpoints in a piece of fiction and can be writing in third person without using third person omniscient. Third person omniscient is an older narrative style in which a single viewpoint contains all characters and perspectives.

The key point to remember in using third person omniscient narration is consistency. Narrative shifts shouldn't happen randomly; they should have a sense of order and rhythm that remains consistent throughout the story.

Points to Remember about “The Elephant”:
Ø  That Slawomir Mrozek, the author of this story, is a Polish dramatist and short-story writer
Ø  That ‘Elephant’ is a contemporary realistic fiction and a beautiful satirical (political) allegory.
Ø  That this story is satirizing the then communist government of Poland.
Ø  That the story has two levels of meaning – the textual meaning creating lots of humour and the symbolic meaning criticizing the corrupt officials and the government.
Ø  That the author is the ‘narrator’ in this story and the story has been written in ‘third person point of view’.
Ø  That ‘Deception and its effects’ and ‘criticizing the corrupt officials and highlighting the corrupt system and government’ are the most prominent themes of this story.
Ø  That a small zoological garden in the provincial town of Poland is the setting of this story.
Ø  That ‘the director vs his selfish motives’ is the internal conflict in this story.
Ø  That ‘the director vs other employees in the zoo’ and ‘the state vs the people’ are the prominent external conflicts in this story.
Ø  That ‘Satire’ is a form of literary work which intends to criticize or ridicule the mistakes, wrongdoings and follies of a person, society or institution in a humorous and sarcastic manner with a positive intention to bring in some positive change by creating awareness.
Ø  That an ‘Allegory’ is a story or visual image with a parallel and distinct second meaning hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. ‘Personification’ is the principal technique used in this kind of writing.

SUMMARY

Surface level:

This third-person omniscient narrative focuses on the ambitious and self-serving director of the Zoological Gardens in a provincial Polish town. The zoo is substandard in this communist society in which appearances mean everything and in which major inadequacies are overlooked because they would, if articulated, reflect badly on the bureaucracy governing the country.

The story starts with a description of the zoo director. "He regards his animals simply as stepping stones of his career. He is careless about the educational value of his establishment." Being in a remote town the zoo is not funded and therefore was "lacking all the important animals". On the anniversary of the liberation of Poland, the zoo was informed that it was receiving an elephant. The staffs of the zoo were very happy but they were surprised that their director was preparing a plan for am more economical elephant. The director had written a letter to the higher authority suggesting an economical elephant made of rubber. Thus, money can be saved to buy a jet plane or to conserve some church monuments. His letter was officially sanctioned and the ministry had approved the idea.

The director began the preparation of the rubber elephant.

The director, who has 3000 rabbits but no elephant, thinks the most important thing is his promotion in his career. So he thinks it doesn’t matter what children are affected by their seeing a spurious elephant. He orders the zoo keepers to blow air into a rubber elephant and to make it as if a real one. He, who was indifferent to educational importance and cared about only his own career, planned to make an elephant out of rubber instead of having a real elephant for saving the cost significantly. He thought that they could fill it with air and place it behind the railings, and that nobody would notice it was not real because elephants are sluggish animals.

The elephant’s rubber carcass is filled with air by the two keepers who ‘blow into it from opposite ends’ locking themselves up in the shed, in the secrecy of the night air; however, they could not make it big enough to look like a real elephant. They got exhausted and came up with an idea that they can fill it with gas and they did. The zoo keepers regarded their duties in a purely bureaucratic manner and do not examine the heart of the matter, but followed only the directives of their superior. The director insisted on haste as he was expecting a bonus, should the idea succeed. Moreover, the people of the town had been informed that an elephant was joining the Zoo the following day.

In the morning, the rubber elephant is placed in a central position next to the monkey cage. Particularly sluggish, Hardly moves” proclaimed a notice. A party of children escorted by the teacher in-charge was amongst the first of the zoo’s visitors that morning. An object lesson about the elephant had been planned by the teacher. As the object lesson proceeded, the children took notes ‘with enraptured admiration’. The elephant did not budge to obey to the dictates of all its mammalian characteristics deemed by the children and the teacher. What astonished the children and the monkeys more was that the supposedly ‘nine and thirteen thousand pounds’ largest living land animal began to take flight as a gust of wind propelled it above the ground.
The descendant of the now-extinct mammoth lay punctured on a cactus in the neighbouring botanical garden. The children who witnessed the scene turned into hooligans and started to neglect their studies. The story ends with a sad note: "And they no longer believe in elephants."


As a Satirical allegory:

The story exposes the corrupt communist government and its officials in Poland. It reveals the struggle between the citizens and the policies of communist regime. ‘The Elephant’ can be termed as a satire on the follies of the communist government. It indirectly criticizes the drawbacks of communism and the policies implemented in Poland after the Second World War

The Elephant is a satirical short story about life under a totalitarian regime. A totalitarian regime is a government which controls every aspect of the life of the people. People living under a totalitarian regime generally also support it, sometimes almost cultishly. Citizens are also usually afraid to criticize the government, so they may be outspoken supporters to avoid closer scrutiny.

The elephant fabricated by the director of the Zoo symbolizes the manifesto of the communist government. Like the elephant the communist government is also beautiful when seen from outside with its almost utopian principles to provide everyone equality. But deep within the politicians themselves are corrupt and lead to the destruction of the state. These officials feel that they could fool the public by replicating the “real thing” but in reality they are only making fool out of themselves.

Mrozek's short fiction satirizes the Polish mentality, romantic heroism and grandiloquence, or the oddities of the Communist system, but his main target is the human behavior, human follies. In 'The Elephant' Mrozek parodied didactic tales. The director of the Zoological Gardens wants to reduce the costs of the establishment. He orders an elephant made out of rubber. Unluckily, it is filled with gas. Next morning children from a school visit the zoo. The teacher tells that "the weight of a fully grown elephant is between nine and thirteen thousand pounds." A gust of wind blows the elephant away.

Communism has brought only atrocities and corruption into Poland. It hasn’t brought relief to the majority as promised, nor has it ended oppression as purposed. The metaphorical symbol in the story symbols in the story gives us clear image of the leaders holding the absolute monopoly in power and thus using forces to keep it concealed. The underlying meaning attached to the different abnormal animals in the zoo could be a way to symbolize their acts – the short necked giraffe can be the officials cut off from seeing what exactly the communist politicians were up to. The badgers, who have lost their burrows, could be the officials who have lost their post for going against their leaders. The whistlers could be the revolutionist or the critics, who wanted to bring out the truth of the politicians but reluctantly whistled, because of their lives at stake. These short comings shouldn’t have been allowed especially as the zoo was often visited by school children.

The communist manifesto looks attractive and magnificent from outside, the way it is designed but internally it is hallow just like the rubber elephant which was inflated with air. The zoo represents the country, animals, and the defective policies of the government. The director represents the corrupt officials who are manipulative, self centered and least bothered about the well-being, sentiments and feelings of the innocent people. They were selfish and concerned about their own career rather than the welfare of the state.

The two keepers represent the lower working class. These innocent people have to carry out their duties according to the whims and fancies of the higher officials; they were also involved in the corruption and manipulation of the government policies.
The children represent the innocent citizens who have a lot of faith in the government as per the promises made in the communist manifesto. However, when they know the reality and motives of the government they are enraged, become violent and turn against the government.

Symbolism used in “The Elephant”:

Sl. No.

LITERAL TERMS

SYMBOLIC MEANING

1
The zoo
The country Poland

2
The Director of the Zoo
Representing the communist government of Poland

3
Animals with different problems /deficiencies in the zoo
Government policies having defect and weakness of various kinds/The underlying meaning attached to the different abnormal animals in the zoo could be a way to symbolize their acts – the short necked giraffe can be the officials cut off from seeing what exactly the communist politicians were up to. The badgers, who have lost their burrows, could be the officials who have lost their post for going against their leaders. The whistlers could be the revolutionist or the critics.
4
The school children
 The common innocent people of the country

5
The Elephant
The constitution, the manifesto or the policy of the Polish communist government
6
The flying Elephant
The deceiving and deception involved in the government’s manifestos and policies
7
The officials
The corrupted officials in the communist government working foolishly
8
The two zoo keepers
The corrupted officials who support their boss blindly and irrationally
9
The teacher
The innocent victim of a corrupt system

10
Misbehaving students
Anger of the common men coming out in various violent manners

Conflicts (Plot):
Internal:                     The Director versus his own self and selfish motives.
External:                    The state versus people, the Director versus other employees in the zoo, the students versus teacher and school are some of the examples of external conflicts.

Justification of the Title:
The title story is a good example -- story of a zookeeper who, to save money and make himself look better to higher officials, buys an inflatable elephant for the zoo instead of a live animal. The workers inflating it with air switch to filling it with gas to save time, and predictably, it floats away during the first day of exhibition. A suitable story must be found to explain so as not to embarrass any party officials.

This story is a satirical and political allegory criticizing the follies and corrupt functioning of the then communist government in Poland. In this story every character is symbolical. For any country or for any form of government the constitution, the policies and the manifestos are the set of supreme law for governing the country effectively and judiciously.  And the author’s main intention is to satirize the manifesto and the policies of the government through this story which he does by using the symbol of the ‘Elephant’ as elephant is the symbolic representative of the manifestos and policies. Thus being satirical and being allegorical nothing could be better and more suitable title then ‘The Elephant’.


Theme:
Deception and its repercussions emerge as the central themes of the story, especially the conflict of the state versus its people. The zoo is substandard in this communist society in which appearances mean everything and in which major inadequacies are overlooked because they would, if articulated, reflect badly on the bureaucracy governing the country. The moral of The Elephant by Slawomir Mrozek is that cutting corners and lying will have far reaching consequences in the world.

Being a satirical allegory ‘The Elephant’ deals at two parallel levels of meaning and understanding – one at the very surface and textual level and the other at its symbolical level. On the surface level and from textual point of view creating humour and comedy appears to be the main theme of this story. But when we delve deep into its meaning at symbolical level then we come across a different and very serious theme in this story. Symbolically the story criticizes the then corrupt and communist government of the country at large. Every character in this story is symbolically connected with something in the government or the country. So criticizing the government, its faulty manifestos and policies, and the corrupt officials working mindlessly is the main theme of this interesting story. Besides, creating awareness about the corruption among the common mass of the country and highlighting the follies and wrongdoing of the government and officials could be considered as its additional theme.


Study questions and answers:

1.      What are some of the specialities of the zoological garden in the provincial town?
This zoological park is located in a provincial town of Poland. The park does not have so many animals such as badger, giraffe, elephant etc. And those animals which are there in the park are having many shortcomings and drawbacks. Many animals in the park are made of rubber.

2.      With what intention did the Director write a letter to Warsaw?
The Director wrote the letter to Warsaw regarding the allocation of an elephant in the zoo. His intention was to forward a plan to obtain an elephant by more economic means. That is why he proposed to have a rubber elephant with appropriate size and colour. He sent this proposal with a satisfaction that he was contributing to his country in reducing the expenditure and use the saved money for some better purpose and cause for the country.

3.      What did they plan to address the problem of immobility of the elephant?
Very cleverly but stupidly at the same time they decided to put a board declaring the elephant particularly lazy and sluggish which hardly moved.

4.      The Director’s proposal was promptly approved. What does it symbolize?
This event simply symbolizes that not only the Director but even the superior officers and authorities were equally incompetent and stupid. They approved the proposal without analysing it properly. They did not even bother for the impact of such stupidity on the common men and children who used to frequent the park for educational purpose.

5.      “The Director of the Zoological Garden is not at all worthy of the post.” Explain the statement with supportive argument from the story.
From the very beginning of the story its evidently clear that the Director does not bother for anything else except his own benefit and promotion. Animals in the zoo are just the stepping stones on his way to success. This zoological garden is particularly meant for educational purpose but the Director is totally indifferent to this purpose and cause. He always thinks how to get promotion and bonus. For him educational purpose or society or children do not matter. Thus it’s very much clear that he was not worthy of the post.

6.      Explain the symbolical significance of ‘Rubber elephant filled with gas’.
In this story everything is symbolically used with a satirical intent in order to criticize something else at the political front. The rubber elephant filled with gas symbolically represents the artificial existence of fake and deceiving laws and manifestos of the communist government of Poland. It also symbolises the hollowness of these manifestos having very weak substantiality.