Faithful Elephants ~ Reading Response

               The story "Faithful Elephants" by Yukio Tsuchiya is about three elephants, John, Tonky and Wanly who live in the Ueno zoo in Tokyo, Japan during a major war. Their loving zoo keepers are given a horrible task. They have to put down the elephants quickly so bombs don't brake open their cages and the elephants don't run a muck all over the city.  I believe that the setting throughout the story connects to the emotions of the zoo keepers/employees.
            In the beginning of the story Yukio talks of a beautiful zoo, "The cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the Ueno zoo. Their petals are falling in the soft breeze and sparkling in the sun. Beneath the cherry trees, crowds of people are pushing to enter the zoo on such a beautiful day." This connects to the zoo keepers emotions because in the next few lines it states, "One day, an employee of the zoo, while tenderly polishing the stone..." I thought these two lines were connected because it says the zoo keeper 'tenderly' and that's normally caring, nice and peaceful and the first quote was explaining a beautiful and peaceful place. which is why i thought those two were connected.
          As the story progresses more and more things hint of how the setting and zoo keepers feelings connect. For example a little later in the story it states, "Japan is at war... Bombs were dropped on Tokyo every day and night like falling rain" and then, "'The elephants are dead! They're dead!' Screamed the elephant trainer as he ran into the office. He buried his head in his arms and cried beating the desk top with his fist." Both of these statements from the story show utter sadness. The elephant trainer in this part of the story sounds completely distraught and the war is coming is obviously lugubrious to everyone involved.
        Another example of my claim would be, "Everyone burst into tears, then stroked the elephants legs and trunks in  sorrow... 'Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!'" I connected this with, "Above them, in the bright blue sky, the angry roar of enemy planes returned. Bombs began to drop on Tokyo once more." Both of these statements connect because the zoo employees all crowding around the dead elephants screaming and crying is so dreadful and so is the fact that their enemy planes have returned and began dropping bombs yet again. 
       The story is now coming to the end and even though it is about to finish it still proves my point. "'These three elephants... are now resting peacefully under this monument.' He was still patting the tombstone tenderly as the cherry blossoms fell on the grave, like snowflakes." this is a sweet, peaceful and overall beautiful way to end such a nice story.
       In conclusion that is why i believe that in the story "Faithful Elephants" the setting description the author, Yukio Tsuchiya, wrote connects to the emotions of the zoo employees.