On "The Stolen White Elephant"
In Mark Twain’s satirical short story, “The Stolen White Elephant,” the disappearance of a Siamese elephant doesn’t just send the police force on a wild goose chase, but also the country into a frenzy. Although the story may read as just another funny story at first, here are some questions to help you think about the deeper meanings and arguments behind the humor.
- Compare the use of humor in Twain’s “The Stolen White Elephant” and in Poe’s “How to Write a Blackwood Article.”
- Among this story’s themes, including the inefficiency and corruption of the police force, do you notice any connections to the modern world?
- Identify an instance that felt especially humorous to you, and through close reading, attempt to explain what effect Twain hoped to convey from that instance.
In “How to Write a Blackwood Article” and “The Stolen White Elephant” both Poe and Twain rely on the use of humor and sarcastic tone to assert their respective points. This similar use of humor and irony aims in both cases to criticize a certain aspect of society or of occupation that each wishes to address. For example, Poe aims to criticize the methods that authors of Blackwood stories use to gather inspiration by creating a story in which a woman goes to such lengths that she literally sacrifices her own life in order to produce a Blackwood-worthy story. Twain aims to criticize the methods and practices of the state-run police force, as well as the ignorance and stupidity that Twain seems to suggest they manifest through their conduct. For example, their long and extensively detailed search for a large, prominently visible animal, as well as their seeming obsession with irrelevant details, creates an atmosphere that almost transcends humor and instead leads the reader to a sense of frustration in which Twain’s own bitterness towards the incompetence of police becomes clear. Similarly, in Blackwood, Poe draws out the woman’s death scene, allowing her to come to the realization of the doom of her situation at such a slow pace that the reader feels the effect of frustration, the likely feeling that such a situation would insinuate within a witness of such a ridiculous scene. In this way both Twain and Poe use humor rather grimly, in that its purpose stands to relay upon the reader a harsh criticism of some aspect in each of their lives that they feel compelled to comment on.
ResponderExcluirSarah Kurzweil
ResponderExcluirI found the ending of the story, when the detective writes an advertisement saying, "A.—xwblv.242 N. Tjnd—fz328wmlg. Ozpo,—; 2m! ogw. Mum” to be particularly humorous. The detective claims that this advertisement will bring the thief to "the usual rendezvous,” which seems unlikely given that the words are not are real language. Here, Twain uses humor to make the reader uncomfortable: the cryptic nature of this advertisement leaves readers wondering if it contains a deeper meaning and whether or not the advertisement is actually effective in accomplishing its goal. There is no definitive indication that a meeting with the thieves actually takes place, and instead, the ending leaves readers feeling as if the man who has lost the elephant and paid the police has been cheated. The made-up words of the advertisement thus allow Twain to highlight what he views as the corruption of the police as they pretend to use obscure methods to solve crimes but really just steal money.
Response by Rebecca Hollister
ResponderExcluirBoth “The Stolen White Elephant” and “How to Write a Blackwood Article” implement humorous elements to create satire and criticize different parts of society. Both Poe and Twain’s work have a supposed authority figure as one of the focuses of the story either explaining their profession or demonstrating it directly, as well as a protagonist that is by all appearances ignorant on the subject at hand. In Poe’s “How to Write a Blackwood Article,” the protagonists listens to Mr. Blackwood as he explains the nonsense behind the composition of a Blackwood article. His explanation includes broken foreign phrases that mean nothing when put into the story, ways of manipulating language to sound classy and pretentious, and even encouraging the protagonist to put herself in a dangerous situation in order to make her point. While all humorous details, this is clearly a criticism of yellow journalism. Similarly, “The Stolen White Elephant” includes a protagonist who has had his elephant--of all things--stolen, and the difficulties the detectives encounter while trying to locate the extremely large creature. While a humorous tale, by the end of the short story the protagonist is bankrupt and has lost his positive reputation, while the detectives have a large party in honor of locating the elephant. Both Poe and Twain recognize the effectiveness of criticism through humor and include similar types of characters in order to make their point regarding certain American institutions.
3. "I am a ruined man and a wanderer on the earth but my admiration for that man, whom I believe to be the greatest detective the world has ever produced, remains undimmed to this day, and will so remain until the end."
ResponderExcluirI found the ending of Twain's short story, "The Stolen White Elephant," to be particularly amusing and thus a fitting conclusion to this satirical account. The main device Twain employs in the quoted passage in order to convey humor is his combined use of hyperbole and juxtaposition. First, Twain presents the speaker to be in the most desolate position possible, entirely hopeless with no prospects for the future. The detective, on the other hand, has ascended to a higher glory than before and the speaker is convinced that he will remain this way. Thus, Twain presents these two characters to be on opposite ends of the spectrum and the juxtaposition of the two of them serves to highlight the vast difference between them.
Furthermore, by presenting the perceived goodness of the detective from the viewpoint of the speaker, the one who has been the most directly damaged by the detective, Twain ends the story by making a point about the naivety of people in the face of official institutions and the ways in which the common man is easily manipulated. It is ironic that the speaker is the one who we ultimately see idolizing the detective. By writing the story from the viewpoint of the most vulnerable character, Twain emphasizes the widespread and pervasive nature of the corruption of official institutions. Moreover, his use of satire mimics the ways in which corruption is masked in the real world; as Twain uses a light-hearted tone to downplay the seriousness of corruption, so too do people minimize the realities of institutional corruption in everyday life.
In Mark Twain's story "The Stolen White Elephant," there were instances that were relatable to the real world. The police force seemed exceptionally inept in the story. Twain highlights this as the inspector has the elephant's caretaker repeat all the random items the elephant would consume including "Bibles" and "bricks" (808). This repetition of useless information shows that public officials occasionally stick to their scripts and do not properly get the job done, something occurring often in reality. Additionally, Twain touches on something that often happens when writing that the man who was conned out of over $100,000 by the detective thought he was still, "...the greatest detective the world has ever produced..." (823). This describes an occurrence often seen in the real world through the usage of irony. Public officials will often take and receive undeserved credit. Recently in the news, it was discussed that President Trump took credit for economic deals cut under the Obama Administration. This demonstrates that the idea that public officials can garner affection based on things they never accomplished holds true in the United States. The detective in the tale also speaks harshly of the media in the beginning of the story when Twain writes that he says, "Speak to no one about the matter, not even the reporters. I will take care of them..." (805). This dialogue helps to highlight two common occurrences in the real world. First, is that the media often times will try to harp on absurd stories like that of a missing elephant rather than important issues. Second, this dialogue highlights that government officials want to bridge the gap between the media and the public in order to maintain control of how the public perceives issues. Overall, Twain's satirical story highlights many circumstances that occur in reality.
ResponderExcluirOne of the themes that ‘The Stolen White Elephant’ explores that I believe clearly pertains to the modern world is sensationalism in the media -the tendency for news agencies to report for the sake of capturing, pleasing, and entertaining audiences, rather than actually educating them. Twain demonstrates this most clearly with the following example of newsletter headlines regarding the stolen elephant:
ResponderExcluir“PALE TERROR GOES BEFORE HIM, DEATH AND DEVASTATION FOLLOW AFTER! ... BARNS DESTROYED, FACTORIES GUTTED, HARVESTS DEVOURED, PUBLIC ASSEMBLAGES DISPERSED…!” (818)
Twain reveals the way the news exaggerates and over-dramatizes real-life situations. He utilizes asyndeton to give the lines a rapid tempo, to emphasize and overwhelm the reader with the seemingly endless nature of the destruction: it’s one horror after another after another after nother. This is further emphasized by Twain’s use of juxtaposition of the past (“before”) and future (“after”) in the first headline. The headlines say: not only will you be so overcome with fear that you turn “pale” like you’re lifeless, but then your only comfort from that will be your guaranteed death right after. In the next headline, Twain also uses the repetition of collocations combining a noun depicting a main sustaining source of human life with past-tense destructive verb used as an adjective. The mention of “barns,” factories,” “harvests,” and “public assemblages” all reveal how almost every aspect of human life will be eliminated: the industrial, the agricultural, the political, and the social. Specifically, the use of “gutted” also ironically personifies factories, giving the violence a personal and even more terrifying quality - Twain creates the imagery of the factory being torn apart so thoroughly it’s like it’s guts are being taken out one by one.
Twain clearly shows how the news is capitalizing off the suffering of populations and ignorance of audiences. The focus on death and destruction in these headlines also reveal a lot about the population as an audience - that we mostly want to read about what appeals to our darkest fascination, whether or not we know them to actually be factually accurate.
I found the initial description of the white elephant to the detective to be particularly humorous. First of all the elephant's name is very long and overly dramatic. The man tells the detective the name is "Hassan Ben Ali Ben Selim Abdallah Mohammed Moist Alhammal Jamsetjejeebhoy Dhuleep Sultan Ebu Bhudpoor" which is obviously humorous for its grandiose nature. An elephant is not generally thought of as something that people cherish and name so a name of this length and power was surprising. The rest of the description reads as if the elephant was a lost child which I again found to be rather humorous. The man rattles off descriptions such as his nickname, the state of his parents, and his birthplace as if the elephant is a child. The detective then lists back what the man has just said. The image gathered from this read back is quite entertaining as well. Particularly, I found the image of the elephant spraying water at strangers to amusing.
ResponderExcluirLastly, the ending was humorous. There is a quote that essentially reads that the detective is the best detective around as long as someone shows him where the elephant is and you are not concerned about how long the detective takes on the case. Obviously these two things completely undermine what would normally be considered to make up a detective.
My first realization of police corruption was when Twain writes about the decision for the reward of finding the elephant. The narrator says to the detective that the reward should go to whoever finds the elephant. The inspector claims that anyone who finds the elephant would have found it due to the clues and reports of the other detectives; therefore, they should get the reward money. I thought this logic kind of dumb at the time and found later on that the detective continued convincing the narrator to raise the reward. Another thing I noticed was the "determination" you could say of the inspector. It seemed that throughout his search he only cared about retrieving the elephant at whatever cost. Inspector Blunt would be happy with the new leads to the elephant despite the fact that there were many deaths reported. "It is not our province to prevent crime, but to punish it. We cannot punish it until it is committed." (17) I thought this line was somewhat ironic because it seems all the police care about is the reward that comes after stopping a crime instead of preventing it. I think maybe Twain was trying to express the theme of police corruption even further by showing the mindset of Inspector Blunt.
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