When the Elephants Dance

When young Alejandro, under torture, refuses to name any of the guerilla fighters, the Japanese soldiers admire the boy’s honor, adding that such a virtue was rare among the Filipinos. After centuries of colonial control, for those foreign cultures that have occupied the Philippines—the Spanish, the British, the Americans, now the Japanese—the native Filipinos have come to be defined as little more than savages that needed civilizing refinements. They are seen as a culture without moral integrity and honor; Holthe’s narrative challenges that assumption. In a book that celebrates the emergence of the indigenous Filipino culture, the definition of that national character centers on the concept of honor. Honor here is the assertion of a personal code of morality and involves putting the welfare of others first. It is maintained despite enormous pressures to abandon that code of conduct. The conditions of the war, the brutality of the Japanese presence, and the grim living conditions do not corrupt the honor of Holthe’s Filipinos gathered in the cellar.

This code of honor is exemplified at critical moments throughout the narrative. The Filipinos sacrifice everything for others: Alejandro, strung up by his thumbs, refusing to cooperate with the Japanese under torture; Carlito, the father, crippled by childhood polio and fighting off malaria, volunteering to work the Manila streets for food and water; the ragtag army of comrades in the hills fighting the impossible crusade to liberate their country; Feliciano, despite his pariah status as a collaborator, rescuing Isabelle from the hotel; Domingo, torn impossibly by his heart, understanding that he must kill the woman he loves; Isabelle cradling the wounded Feliciano.