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It was a mysterious sight. Looking through the vent, I had the feeling that a different, chilling kind of time was flowing through the elephant house—but nowhere else. And it seemed to me, too, that the elephant and the keeper were gladly giving themselves over to this new order that was trying to envelop them—or that had already partially succeeded in enveloping them.

This quote occurs during the climax of the story, as the narrator finally reveals what he’s been hiding all along. He describes a sight that defies all rationality, as the elephant gradually shrinks before his eyes. This is the most thorough explanation offered in the story for the disappearance of the elephant, and still it makes little sense. The narrator struggles to describe what happens and nothing in the story sheds more light on this strange event. The effect is off-putting for the reader, but especially for the narrator. As someone who values predictability and logic above all, the narrator is changed forever by this completely illogical and unpredictable event.

The rain outside the window was still coming down, no stronger or weaker than before, a static element in a landscape that would never change.

This quote occurs during the rising action, as the narrator begins to describe to the editor what happened at the elephant house. Throughout his conversation with the editor, the narrator comments on the weather outside the cocktail bar. Each time he looks out the window, he sees a rainy drizzle through which the hazy city lights are shining, distorted by the rain. He emphasizes that the rain is “static” and unchanging, which recalls to mind the narrator’s organization and routine, which he so valued previously. He also mentions “a landscape that would never change,” continuing on this theme. To him, the steady rain brings to mind the practical world that never changes in spite of inexplicable events like the disappearance of the elephant. The haze it casts on the world reflects how the narrator sees the practical world now, almost from afar or through a hazy glass, since the elephant disappeared.

Next section The Illusion of Logic

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