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Essay 1 Elephant

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Essay: Elephant by Polly Clark, 2006 A To choose your own future, destiny and life is very hard. Everyone wants to do something that makes them happy. But sometimes you take the wrong decisions or everything decides to go against you, which makes you stay in the box you were trying to escape from. When your dreams don’t get fulfilled, you will be in that box and wait for the light. It’s not always about what you want, but what you need. And to live a good life, and to do something productive, you have to work in a way that will make you happy, because that is what you need the most. Elephant is a short story written by Polly Clark in 2006. My focus point is William and his life, which I will analyze and interpret. I will also discuss the …show more content…

21 – 27. 2. Elephant by Polly Clark – l. 11 – 13. 3. Elephant by Polly Clark – l. 19 – 23. 4. Elephant by Polly Clark – l. 80 – 83 He keeps thinking about an elephant he got from his mother when he was little, after his wife tells him that she will be home in twenty minutes, he gets a flashback to a time where he was waiting for his mom in the same amount of time. And that’s when he got the blue elephant5. The elephant can symbolize freedom, peace and happiness, which he is looking for. It was a gift from his mother, and she had been gone for a long while, so when she came back it brought joy and hope in him. Therefore the elephant is meaningful and also the light in his dark working room. William gets a switch between getting hope and losing it, as when he was talking with his wife Ginny, about moving to Australia, he just says “Let’s see what happens” as if it doesn’t interest him.6 He is not pleased with the way his life is, because it wasn’t the way he planned it to be, but he has hope and is dedicated with his work, even though it sadness him that he feels as if his work is unwanted. Ken Follett’s introduction to the 1999 edition of The Pillars of the Earth can be used as an introduction to William’s life, because “Nothing happens the way you plan it.”7 At the end of the story of the text Elephant, Williams does realize that he actually can change his life, by involving his own past and experiences. Tears fills his eyes and he finally finds peace, because

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