The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

The changing relationship between the narrator and his sister fuels the narrator’s sense of Existential Anxiety in the Modern World. The narrator’s professed dislike for the sister’s new boyfriend symbolizes his larger anxiety that she is moving forward, making meaningful connections, and building a fuller life, while he remains aimless and stagnant. During a fight with his sister about her fiancé, the narrator himself admits that “maybe [he’s] just narrow-minded”—an interpretation shared by his sister, who believes him to have “such a narrow view of things” (158). However, what really bothers the narrator is how his relationship with his sister has changed: “Why had her attitude toward me changed so much over the past year? Until then, she had seemed to enjoy being partners with me in my resolutely aimless life-style, and—if I’m not mistaken—she even looked up to me to some extent” (161). The dislike of the fiancé is a placeholder for the narrator’s insecurity that he is being left behind.

The narrator’s character development suggests that he is lonelier than he realizes, emphasizing a lack of intimacy in his interactions. He covers up his unhappiness and discontent with jokes and sarcasm, but he does not have a meaningful career, pursues superficial relationships, and drinks heavily. Even at the best of times, his relationship with his sister is isolating. Part of the reason the narrator enjoys living with her so much is because their schedules are so different that he hardly ever sees or speaks to her, which allows him to escape any kind of accountability to her. During their argument, his sister indicates that the narrator seems to be stuck in arrested development, telling him he “ought to think about [his] life more seriously, act more like a grownup” (160).

Over the course of the story, the narrator arc moves from a place of denial to incrementally more self-awareness. He is kind to his sister when she is upset, and, despite his protests, he does spend time with his sister’s fiancé and even goes with her to meet his family. He admits that Noboru is “not such a bad guy” (170), and even seems to realize that his dislike of him is more his problem than anything else. After all, Noboru is obviously “a serious individual” (170), and it is precisely this seriousness that causes the narrator anxiety, forcing him to confront his own shortcomings relative to Noboru—the perfect foil for the narrator. The narrator is polygamous, while Noboru is monogamous. The narrator leads an “aimless life-stye,” while Noboru is very serious about his career. The narrator drinks heavily, while Noboru is allergic to alcohol. Noboru is everything that the narrator is not. And though the narrator does not want to be precisely like Noboru, he also feels guilty that he is not at least trying to better himself.

The narrator admits to his sister at the end of the story that “everything you’ve said lately has been right on the mark” (184) and tells her that “if I’m the one you chose to be hard on, you made the right choice” (184). The measurable impact of this epiphany on the narrator’s life is left ambiguous. Even as the narrator thinks about where he is “headed” at the end of the story, he quickly drops the subject, claiming he is “far too tired to think very deeply about such things” (185).