“The Elephant” is a short story by Slawomir Mrozek and can be found in his collection of the same name. It’s very short and there are several humorous lines in it. It’s about a zoo run by an ambitious director who doesn’t care about the job or facility. When an opportunity arises to save money, he takes it even though it completely goes against the spirit of what he’s supposed to be providing to the public. Here’s a summary of “The Elephant”.
“The Elephant” Summary
The director of the Zoological Gardens is focused on his career. He isn’t concerned with the quality of the zoo, and the animals aren’t prime specimens. One of the zoo’s noteworthy faults is its lack of an elephant. The staff is happy when the zoo is notified it has been allocated an elephant, and they’re surprised when the director turns it down.
The director writes to Warsaw explaining his idea. They can reduce costs by procuring an inflatable rubber elephant. It will be the right size and carefully painted to look realistic. A posted sign will inform visitors that this elephant is unusually sluggish, so the stillness won’t tip them off.
The Ministry approves the director’s plan and he issues instructions for making the elephant. Two zoo keepers are assigned to blow up the rubber form in a shed during the night. After blowing for two and a half hours, the rubber skin has risen less than six inches.
When they stop to rest, one of them notices the gas pipe. They connect the elephant and open the valve. It fully inflates in a few minutes and looks very realistic.
In the morning, the inflated elephant is moved to the middle of its area next to the monkey cage. It looks magnificent. The notice declaring the elephant’s reluctance to move is posted.
That morning, a teacher leads a group of local students on a tour of the zoo. He relates elephant facts to the group while they look at the unmoving animal. A breeze comes up while he gives the elephant’s weight—between nine and thirteen thousand pounds. The huge elephant rises slightly and then gets blown high into the sky. It sails over the fence and disappears behind the treetops. The monkeys look on in astonishment.
The elephant is found in the botanical gardens, its side punctured from a cactus. The schoolchildren who witnessed the event become hooligans, drinking and breaking windows. They no longer believe in elephants.
(End of “The Elephant” Summary)
“The Elephant” Explanation
“The Elephant” is an allegory, with the zoo representing the Polish Communism government, the director and Ministry official representing its corrupt leaders and bureaucrats, and the zoo staff representing the common working citizen. It’s also a satire of those things, using an exaggerated situation to highlight their shortcomings.
The director is only concerned with his own career advancement. This motivates him to save money by presenting a fraud to the public rather than a genuine experience and education. Likewise, the Ministry official focuses on the cost savings, without “examining the heart of the matter”.
The staff, “who are devoted to their work”, aren’t given the resources or autonomy to present anything valuable to the public. Two of the zoo keepers are assigned the impossible task of blowing up the elephant-sized inflatable by mouth. The difficulty and duration of the job practically forces them to take a shortcut, which greatly contributes to the plan’s failure.
I hope this summary and look at “The Elephant” by Slawomir Mrozek was helpful.
