Year of the Elephant

                  I confess that though I read and enjoyed the Year of the Elephant, I actually forgot most of what I read (probably from reading too many things at once!).  The story I most remember from the book is “A House in the Woods”; it is the first one I read and its symbolism intrigued me.  While reading it, I actually wondered if the girls were going to be kidnapped by the man in the woods, because it seemed as though the author was setting the story up to be a mystery.  When the ending was not what I expected, I was confused about the symbolism.

                  I wonder if the author was using the story as an analogy of international relations.  She describes the beautiful land in the beginning, and informs the readers that she sees three sisters who “appear” to be sisters.  The oldest takes control and tells the other two what to do, and they set off to build a house.  The two younger ones try hard to please their older sister with their work.  Then comes the old man who sees what’s going on and offers to help the two younger ones.  But then he falls asleep, and the girls start aggravating him.  He comes alive and again helps them.  There were also the hornet, the pebbles, and other things that the girls were collecting; maybe these symbolize things that the girls/states were chasing (such as peace, power, etc?).  Sometimes they were successful in grasping them, but other times, such as with the hornet, they were unsuccessful.  The funny thing is that if the youngest had caught the hornet, it probably would have stung her.

                  I do not know if my interpretations of the text are correct, but it seemed that the author may have been portraying different countries and how they relate to each other, specifically her own country (which is represented maybe by the youngest sibling?).