36 pages • 1 hour read
Tess Uriza HoltheWhen the Elephants Dance
Tess Uriza HoltheFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4 Summary: “Alejandro Karangalan”
The detainees, weak from hunger and the heat, are panicking at the warehouse. The Americans are close to liberating the city, but the Japanese are desperate to hang on. The neighbors from the Karangalan cellar huddle together. They are shocked when Japanese soldiers bring in a bloody Feliciano—he has been tortured, the rising sun of the Japanese flag carved into his chest. Isabelle rushes to comfort him, cradling his head in her lap.
The Filipinos are now determined to fight their way out of the warehouse, but the only door is locked. Lorna, desperate to save her family, lunges at the soldiers, clawing their faces. The soldiers, momentarily stunned, stab at her with their bayonets. She is killed instantly. When her son rushes to her defense, the soldiers plunge their blades into him and then snatch her baby and bayonet her as well.
The detainees smell smoke and understand that the Japanese intend to burn down the warehouse. The Japanese soldiers herd some of the detainees out to use them as shields against American gunfire. The rest of the detainees, however, rush the door. In the confusion, however, they meet up with American soldiers, alerted by Domingo of the presence of the detainees in the burning warehouse. The detainees are quickly moved to safety. Domingo, hailed as a savior by his friends, is inconsolable—his son dies in his arms. He has lost his entire family and many of his comrades: “I have killed them all with my indecision” (362).
The American soldiers escort the neighbors back to the Karangalan home, but it is in ruins. The wealthy Ana offers her home—the magnificent home has been spared, commandeered during the occupation by Japanese officers. The neighbors all go. The following morning, they enjoy a “feast” (364) of fried sardines and rice, all but Domingo who cannot bring himself to join their company.
During the day, more relatives and neighbors return to visit, and Alejandro observes, “[M]y heart feels as if it is slowly being pieced back together” (366). Ana offers them her home as temporary residence. Domingo alone refuses her generous offer: “There are too many ghosts here for me” (366). He says he needs to be alone, and his soul needs time to heal: “In time I shall return” (366). Alejandro begs him to stay, but he declines: “Remember how everyone fought together. Keep it in your heart, and never let anyone divide us again” (367). With dignity, Domingo departs, a silhouette against the sunrise, walking off into the Zambales foothills.
The young Alejandro closes the narrative determined to celebrate the ideal for which Domingo sacrificed so much—an independent and united Philippines: “I am proud to be a Filipino. I shall lift my fist forever in honor of my country” (376).
Part 4 Analysis
Alejandro returns to narrate the closing section, and his transformation is evident: The boy who began savvy and streetwise and proud of his survival skills comes to understand the value of others. He must learn that honor without family and friends is unbearable, that sacrifice without compassion is empty, and that hope without community is barren. His growth makes possible the birth of a new era that illuminates the novel’s closing part. As Domingo’s family is brutally slaughtered, and as the detainees locked in the warehouse smell the first hints of smoke that tell them they are to be burned alive, there is no time for retreating into the magic spell of storytelling.
What Alejandro goes on to share is not some exotic tale of the magical or the fabulous but rather a gritty narrative with an inspirational lesson in how these desperate Filipinos come together. Together, the detainees rush the door, make it out through the gunfire to the Manila streets, follow the American patrol to safety, and celebrate their freedom at Ana’s home. That manifestation of community, symbolized by the simple breakfast of fried sardines and rice, is in the end magic enough. Although Domingo is too devastated to join the new community, even as he walks off into the hills bathed in the soft light of the sunrise, his brave actions have made that communion breakfast possible. His departing words now inspire young Alejandro: It is up to Alejandro and his generation, the young survivors of the war, to “teach the other children that it is better to stand together than to let other nations divide us” (368).
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