Analysis Paper Step 4: Outline

Analysis Paper Step 4: Outline

Outline for Analysis Paper

Topic: Three balances in the story

Thesis: The balance between elephant and keeper, citizen and government, reality and the mental world are broken after the elephant vanishes.

Part 1: Balance between elephant and keeper

Sentence: “It wasn’t what they did that was different. It’s the way they looked. Something about the balance between them. In size of their bodies. The elephant’s and the keeper’s. The balance seemed to have changed somewhat. I had the feeling that to some extent the difference between them had shrunk ”

Analysis: The writer mentioned the broken balance directly in the story. The size of them changed and they became more similar. The relation ship between them also changed. In the past, they were breeder and animal, now they are friends.

Part 2: Balance between citizen and government

Sentence: “While they did not say it in so many words, they hinted at the possibility of some secret deal between the mayor and the developer.”

Analysis: The mayor wants to keep the elephant, but some people hold the opposite opinion. They think the mayor accepts bribes so he insists in keeping the elephant.

Sentence: “Riddled as it was with such perplexities and labored circumlocutions, the newspaper article as a whole left but one possible conclusion: the elephant had not escaped. It had vanished.”

Analysis: According to the article that was published by the government, they could not find any useful information about why the elephant are vanished. The comment shows the displeasure motion of citizens. They questioned the government’s ability.

Part 3: The balance between reality and the mental world

Sentence: “The more pragmatic I try to become, the more successfully I sell-our campaign has succeeded beyond our most optimistic forecasts-and the more people I succeed in selling myself to.”

“When magazines gave us publicity, we rewarded them by placing ads in their pages. They scratched our backs, we scratched theirs.”

Analysis: The reality of the writer can also reflect the normal life of citizens. In order to be success, they need to become pragmatic. They cannot follow the way they like. He will join social activities to get benefit from others. However, this may not be the thing he really likes. It is only accepted by the highly developed capitalist society.

Sentence: “I had had my own private interest in the elephant problem from the very outset, and I kept a scrapbook with every clipping I could find on it.”

“Whenever I had a spare moment, I would visit the house where the elephant no longer lived.”

Analysis: The narrator’s pure expectation in sincere relationship between people without any interest driven.

Conclusion: The three balances in the story are all broken and this may cause a lot of problems. Those broken relation ship finally found a new balance. The vanishing elephant creates conflicts, but gradually, the conflicts are all solved. The ending of the story is unusual. We don’t the where are the elephant and its keeper, what are they doing after escaping from the town. The story remains a large room for readers to imagine.