Rebirth

Rachel Williams Professor Churchill English 68 22 September 2011 Rebirth Have you seen the elephant' He has traveled a great distance but is not recognized. The elephant had been through so much that he is on his last leg. His body is worn from head to toe and is near death. In the short story, “Wallace Porter- or What It Means to See the Elephant,” Cathy Day uses Irene and George’s relationship with Wallace Porter in order to show why Wallace buys the circus. The relationship between Irene and Wallace lacks major communication. Throughout the story they both ignore what each other says, and only care about themselves. Wallace explains how he wants the best furniture for their mansion, but Irene does not even want the mansion. “To Irene, a chair was the price of a rail ticket, a dresser was a week’s stay in a hotel, and with each purchase the broad future she’d imagined shrank just a little bit more.” Wallace and Irene married each other for the wrong reasons, and that is the key problem of their relationship. Irene married Wallace because she thought he could give her an adventure, but he wants her to live as she was accustomed to. He wants her to stay at home and join the ladies circle. “Although he pleaded with her, Irene refused an invitation to join a local ladies circle. ‘I’ve had my fill of circles, thank you very much.’ ” Wallace Porter wants Irene to stay refined, and be his trophy wife. He would love for her to talk about him to her friends, about how much money he has and how well he treats her. Wallace Porter marries Irene to raise his social class and show off his money. In the beginning of their relationship there is nothing but miscommunication, until Wallace realizes what she really wants. “Porter felt his failure sitting like a gargoyle on his heart.” Wallace Porter finally listens to her, despite what he wants, and realizes that he has failed her as a husband. In the end , while Irene was on her death bed, he finally does one thing right, and makes her a promise. This promise was the only thing she wanted form her, and he accepted it. Wallace Porter would like to make up for what he has done to his wife, so he buys the circus. The relationship between Wallace Porter and his wife is not the only reason why he buys the circus. Wallace Porter meets George, the elephant, at the circus and has flash backs about his wife and when he used to be in the war. Wallace is being introduced to the elephant by Hollenbach, “ This is George, the only elephant left. A good worker. Had to sell the rest.” When Wallace is introduced to the elephant he seems to be just a regular circus animal. George is the only one left due to budge cuts. As Wallace examines George he finds that there is more to him, “One ivory tusk was tipped with a gold ball, the other was broken off, ‘from lifting tent poles,’ Hollenbach explained.” George is on his last leg; he has been worn and torn to the point where it looks like he will not be alive for much longer. The author states how his skin was sagged from the bones that stuck out of him. This is the point were Wallace Porter remembers how his wife looked as she was dying, “ Irene’s grey skin stretched tight over sharp bones.” George the elephant, and Irene seem to resemble one another. Irene is grey like an elephant and has started reacting like an animal as well. Wallace also remembers deaths from the war. From seeing all these deaths again, it made Wallace realize how he could not help the animals in the war and failed to help his wife. He figures he could at least help and save the circus. Wallace Porter has been to see the elephant. He has went “over the wall, into the cave, across the mountain, into the dark night and beyond.” Nevertheless, he is still traveling on his journey, but now with a new life. A life that his late wife and him would have loved together. He has envisioned his wife, “smiling and squeezing his hand, just as she did two years ago on the wedding train from New York. Buying the circus was the first thing that Wallace bought that made him and others blissful. He no longer has to be depressed and guilty about is lifestyle, but can live it the way he wants too. He has been reborn and is now in command; Wallace has made things right with his wife and is now in control of the events in his life.