The Elephants Legacy: (and other stories)


But she persistently calls back, forcing him to take the phone off the hook. Once back in bed, Iris starts chain smoking and engages the narrator in conversation.

The narrator desperately wants to go back to sleep, but he gets caught up in Iris's ruminations. He begins chain smoking as well. Iris talks about the dream the phone call interrupted. She doesn't remember the details, but she recalls that the dream did not include the narrator, which upsets him.

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As the night moves on, the narrator is very much aware of the passage of time, and hopes to be able to catch some sleep before daybreak, when he needs to get up to go to work. But he is engaged in the chat with his wife.

Ultimately, the conversation focuses on whether one partner will "pull the plug" on the other if either were mortally incapacitated. Iris wants the narrator to pull the plug, but after some thought, the narrator asks Iris to let the doctors do what they can do. Don't pull the plug. At daybreak, the narrator gets up and goes to work. Throughout the day he reflects on his conversation with Iris and on his fatigue. That night, the phone rings and the familiar woman's voice asks for "Bud.

Elephant (stories) - Wikipedia

The narrator has achieved a measure of public recognition as a writer. While on the road, he drops by his ex-wife's house unannounced. It has been four years since they last met. When she sees him, she launches into a non-stop soliloquy , enumerating her hurts and anger at his betrayal.

The narrator had trouble dealing with Molly's breakdown—while attending a drinking party at an artist friend's house Alfredo , he began to shake uncontrollably. A half year passes before she finally departs. Even the way they drink is amazing. This gave me an idea. What is also important about the narrator dreaming about his son, is the fact that he also dreams that someone had given him some whiskey in the dream. As the story continues the reader also realises that Billy is not the only person who is dependent or relying on the narrator. Eavesdropping on this conversation between old friends reminded me of what's really important for these captive elephants:

Through her onslaught, it is clear that she cared dearly for him and the lost life they built together. After her diatribe dies down, the narrator drops to his knees before her, holding the hem of her dress. She becomes self-conscious, then worries that her new husband will return home and find them together. She indicates that the reason he visited her was to gain new material for his stories. She asks him to leave.

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In the middle of the night, the narrator reflects on his relations with three women: He looks out his window and sees the lights on at Amanda's house and wonders what she is doing. After Amanda's husband Oliver discovered her affair with the narrator, he left the house, giving Amanda an ultimatum to move out within a week. Vicky also knows of the affair and is now snubbing him.

It is not clear how their relationship will end or what kind of a future relationship he will have with Amanda. He reflects on his treatment of his ex-wife, Molly. She loved him unconditionally. When he left her for Vicky, she had a breakdown and was sent to a mental institution. The narrator had trouble dealing with Molly's breakdown—while attending a drinking party at an artist friend's house Alfredo , he began to shake uncontrollably. The friend said he would fix him a menudo , a Latino stew made of tripe , sausage, onions, tomatoes, chili powder , and other ingredients.

The menudo would calm him down. But the narrator fell asleep before the menudo was ready and as a consequence he never sampled it. As the narrator reflects on his life with the three women, dawn arrives. Looking outside, he sees leaves scattered on his lawn.

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He dresses, grabs a rake and rakes and bags the leaves on his lawn. Then he begins raking a neighbor's lawn, and the story ends. In Elephant by Raymond Carver we have the theme of dependency, security, struggle, acceptance and letting go. Taken from his Elephant and Other Stories collection the story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator and from the beginning of the story it would appear that Carver is exploring the theme of dependency. As the story continues the reader also realises that Billy is not the only person who is dependent or relying on the narrator.

We also learn that he is supporting his mother, sending her money every month, his ex-wife alimony payments and his two children. Every character in the story appears to be reliant or dependent on the narrator for support and also appears to be struggling just as the narrator is. While party platforms change and politicians adapt their beliefs in response to their constituency and their poll numbers, one thing has remained consistent for more than years: And Thomas Nast was a master of the medium, although one who, by all accounts, was churlish, vindictive and fiercely loyal to the Republican party.

On January 15, , Nast published the cartoon that would forever link the donkey to the Democrat.

Political Animals: Republican Elephants and Democratic Donkeys

A few ideas should be clear for the cartoon to make sense: The choice of a donkey —that is to say, a jackass— would be clearly understood as commentary intended to disparage the Democrats. Nast continue to use the donkey as a stand-in for Democratic organizations, and the popularity of his cartoons through s ensured that the party remained inextricably tied to jackasses. An lithograph depicting the first appearance of the Democratic donkey. In , when Andrew Jackson was running for president, his opponents were fond of referring to him as a jackass if only such candid discourse were permissible today.

Emboldened by his detractors, Jackson embraced the image as the symbol of his campaign, rebranding the donkey as steadfast, determined, and willful, instead of wrong-headed, slow, and obstinate. Throughout his presidency, the symbol remained associated with Jackson and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic party. The association was forgotten, though, until Nast, for reasons of his own, revived it more than 30 years later. Grant as a potential American dictator.

The People Of The Elephant - Islamic Stories

The rationale behind the choice of the elephant is unclear, but Nast may have chosen it as the embodiment of a large and powerful creature, though one that tends to be dangerously careless when frightened. Like Andrew Jackson, the Republican party would eventually embrace the caricature, adopting the elephant as their official symbol.

The Democrats, however, never officially adopted the donkey as a symbol. Nonetheless, come election season, both animals lose any zoological significance in favor of political shorthand. Subscribe or Give a Gift.

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