Reading Response: Faithful Elephants

In this emotional short story "Faithful Elephants" by Yukio Tsuchiya, the story speaks about three elephants in a Japanese zoo during World War II. The Japanese government had ordered for the animals to be killed in case the zoo were to be bombed and they didn't want to risk these big animals out of the zoo. The author of this short story provides very powerful and generational themes that can be applied to all people of all ages. The most important of these themes is that it is okay to rebel against what the majority of people may think.
One example of these generational themes that can be applied to anyone in any particular situation is that it's okay to rebel against the majority of people if you know that it's right. For example, in this story this theme was applied when the zookeeper was supposed to starve his three elephants and could not resist looking at them dying, and fed them. One example of this in the story is when he feeds his elephants "Eat your food! Please drink. Drink your water! All of the other keepers pretended not to see what the trainer had done. No one said a word." This is a very powerful quote from the text because it shows that the zookeeper not only had the courage to pull this act and feed the elephants, but out of all the zookeepers who wanted to feed the Elephants, he was the only who was brave enough to do it. This can also be known as an act of rebellion even though it isn't against the zookeepers, it's against the Japanese government which is a more powerful group of people.
Another generational theme that can be applied to any generation is to make sure that there is no war. As simple as it may sound and sometimes obvious, still today there are wars all around the world. One example of this theme in this story is "Above them in the bright blue sky, the angry roar of enemy planes returned. Bombs began to drop on Tokyo once more. Still clinging to the elephants, the zookeepers raised their fists to the sky and implored 'Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!" This is an extremely powerful quote because it shows how war not just affects people directly, but it also can affect animals.
In conclusion, this very short story provided many themes that will be held onto for generations. Rebellion and stopping war are lessons that are still trying to be applied today. Wars in Syria and rebellions against dictators in Libya and Egypt over the past few years all started because a group of people didn't agree with the majority, and they knew what they were doing was right. Maybe the way they approached trying to solve their problems could have been modified, but it was the only way to act. People still are trying to constantly stop all wars. And this story is a great example of how one day, maybe we can all be in a world of peace and no war. The author incorporates these themes into a simple short story about three elephants.

Million-Dollar Throw

In the book "Million Dollar Throw" by Mike Lupica, Lupica comes through and provides strong themes to teach the reader. Some of these strong themes include how to handle pressure, and wanting to provide for your family in whatever way you can. It teaches that a kid as young as Nate who is 13, can help his family in the only way he can, with his very good football arm. This may be considered a sports cliché but it doesn't just speak about sports, it relates it back to everyday life.

One way this book teaches a mental lesson and how to handle pressure is when Nate is under pressure to make the million-dollar throw. Since his family is in desperate economic needs, if he were to make this throw, he would solve all the problems to their financial needs. But it teaches a big mental lesson in how to overcome his fear of missing the throw and not bringing back the money. This shows that someone could be very capable of doing something but out of fear of messing up, they do not achieve that goal. It's a big mental fear to overcome but Nate knows it is something he will have to over come.

In conclusion, it shows how mature Nate is because he knows there is pressure on him, but by knowing this, he knows how to deal with it. That shows great maturity for such a young boy who has a lot to weigh down on his shoulders. This book has many themes, but it's most important are overcoming fears and handling pressures.