Elephants - Max

 “The "world"—the word always makes me think of a tortoise and elephants tirelessly supporting a gigantic disc. The elephants have no knowledge of the

tortoise's role, the tortoise unable to see what the elephants are doing. And neither is the least aware of the world on their backs.”

 “A Wild Sheep Chase.” 

I was fascinated by the military's inability to kill the elephants in the little piece of the wind-up bird chronicle we read. I went through some of the other stories we read, and this was the only mention of Elephants that I could find. As someone else wrote about War and WWII, I think keeping in mind that to Murakami, at least partially, elephants are linked to this creation myth where they hold up the world is important. This means the scene where the soldiers point their guns at the elephants is apocalyptic in nature, as they can destroy the world. Thus, not killing the elephants isn't a matter of bullet counts or elephant size, but a potentially world-saving event. Murakami captures so much of the violence of war without actually demonstrating violence against humans.