The Beautiful Story Of The Chained Elephant
The story of the chained elephant tells us that a very playful, curious and funny child lived in a small village. His parents had a farm and he considered all animals to be his friends. Hens, ducks, pigs and cows were his playmates. He had given them names and spoke to them as if they could understand it.
One day, a gigantic circus came to settle near the village. The child in the story of the chained elephant had never seen one before. His comrades spoke only of this event. When they left school, everyone would go and see how the big top was set up and how the circus people were getting everything ready for the first performance.
The child asked his parents to take him to the circus. He was dying to watch the jugglers, the clowns and, of course, the tamers. He had noticed the presence of mysterious and colossal animals. A tiger, a lion, an elephant and several zebras. A real treasure for the little boy.
A circus night
The child’s parents agreed to take him away. The little one was excited. He was almost unable to sleep because he knew he was finally going to see this long-awaited spectacle that intrigued him. Sunday morning he got up at the first light of dawn. He prepared at full speed. But the hours did not pass. Finally, the longed-for moment arrived.
The parents bought popcorn and candy for the little one. He savored them but enjoyed even more the spectacle which seemed supernatural to him. He loved trapeze artists and, of course, numbers with animals. The lion was so docile that he greeted the audience. The zebras were so agile that they ran in a circle without losing pace. And the elephant was so friendly that he would stand up on his two hind legs and have fun with the clowns.
The child was so fascinated that he wanted, at the end of the performance, to go see the artists and the wonderful animals. And that is what he did. He walked around with his parents and saw that the beasts were in cages. The elephant, however, was outside. The little boy approached him and saw that he was tied to a stake with a huge chain. The animal did not move. He just stood there quietly.
The plot of the story of the chained elephant
The story of the chained elephant tells that the child returned home, thoughtful. He hadn’t liked to see the animals locked in their cages at all. However, it was the elephant that had marked him the most. He was free but, at the same time, attached. Even though it was a big chain, it was obvious that the elephant could get rid of it whenever he wanted. After all, he was a gigantic animal.
The little boy asked his parents why the elephant was tied with chains. They answered him “ so that he wouldn’t run away”. So that he doesn’t run away? He could run away whenever he wanted! A chain and a stake were no obstacles for him. So, “ why doesn’t he run away?” Asked the child. Her parents shrugged their shoulders and didn’t answer.
The child remained deep in thought and, the next day, asked the same question of his natural science teacher. This offered him a clear answer: “ He does not run away because he has been trained”. And she explained to him what training was.
The reasons for not running away
The little boy in the story of the chained elephant then realized that although the animal was large, it had also been small at some point in his life. And it was precisely during this period of his life that a chain was attached to his leg, a chain attached to a stake. The child imagined the baby elephant struggling to break free from this bond, but failed.
He realized that the elephant hadn’t realized two things: that he had grown up and that he was now a formidable animal. In his mind he only remembered that fierce struggle against a chain and a stake that did not give way. Now he didn’t even try to shake it off when he could easily do it. The memory of this impossibility of the past was stronger than the real possibility of the present.
The story of the Chained Elephant is very similar to that of many people who get stuck with a bad experience from the past. They never give a chance to what has failed because the memory of a past evil is stronger than the real possibilities of a present that could change everything.
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