87 pages • 2 hours read
Roland SmithElephant Run
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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BetaPart 3, Chapters 29-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Hannibal's Mahouts”
Part 3, Chapter 29 Summary: “The Bamboo Cross”
The next morning, Nick and Hilltop are left to watch burial detail, and Mya stays behind with Hannibal. Mya is worried, but Hilltop reassures her: “Just remember this, Mya. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world” (293). After a while, Indaw comes crashing through the brush with Miss Pretty, and Indaw invites Mya to ride her one last time. Meanwhile, Nick and Hilltop come to the burial site. Sonji is there with two working men and two men inside the cart. Nick is devastated to see his father in the cart, and he begins to weep. He expects Hilltop to take him away, but Hilltop doesn't. Instead, Sonji covers the body himself, planting a bamboo cross in the dirt. After the workers and Sonji leave, Hilltop ushers Nick to help him uncover the body. They dig, and Jackson opens his eyes and greets his son.
Part 3, Chapter 30 Summary: “Tiger's Breath”
Hilltop and Nick half-drag Jackson to Hannibal. They all climb aboard and share stories of their experiences. Soon, Hannibal is tired and grouchy, and Hilltop suggests they stop to rest. Hannibal wanders off into the jungle, and the others fall asleep. They wake to the sound of Captain Moto's jeep. It is too late to run. Bukong and Captain Moto jump out, and the trackers with them tie everyone's hands. Bukong strokes Mya's hair, and she spits in his face in retaliation. Captain Moto says he is looking for Kya Lei and will kill whoever does not reveal his whereabouts. Just as Moto is about to behead Hilltop and Nick, Hannibal comes rushing through the woods. Moto and Bukong run to the jeep, but Hannibal is angry about the tiger skins that stretch over the jeep seats from Moto's conquests: “Bukong and Moto realized their mistake too late. Before they could scramble out of the jeep, Hannibal hit it like a locomotive engine” (306). Moto is killed, and Bukong is shot by a mysterious bullet. Suddenly, the trackers fall dead as well. Nick tries to move, but Hilltop stops him, warning him about Hannibal's rage. Nick asks about the bullets coming from the trees just as Kya Lei steps into the clearing. Nick's stepfather Bernard is with him.
Part 3, Chapter 31 Summary: “Bernard”
Bernard parachuted into Hawk's Nest to destroy the airfield but soon discovered his work had already been done. He then got word from Kachin guerilla soldiers that Nick was still alive in the forest near the camp. Bernard came to find them and planned to lead everyone to a submarine that would take them safely to India. Bernard gets up to lead everyone on the two day hike toward the submarine, but Hilltop will not go and says, “Burma is where I will die […] I have lived my life [...] Now you go off and live yours” (310).
Part 3, Chapter 32 Summary: “Alice Springs, August 15, 1945”
In Alice Springs, Nick carves wood with the Sergeant Major's knife. The war is over in Germany but not in Japan. Nick and his father bought the cattle ranch from Mr. Shute and have made a permanent home in Australia. Hawk's Nest was decimated in a bomb. When Nick asked if they would ever go back, his father replied: “It's time we give Burma back to the Burmese” (313). Nick sees a cloud of dust and knows his father is returning with his birthday gift. In the car is his mother, Bernard, and another surprise: Indaw. They tell Nick the Japanese surrendered after the U.S. dropped two new bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The war is officially done. Indaw visits Mya out back—she is training horses and has a camel named Miss Pretty. Nick and Mya are in a relationship and kiss secretly while Indaw goes inside to get Nick his present from an old friend. The gift is Hannibal's iron bell. Sonji had given it to Indaw to give to Nick when the war ended. Nick hangs it below their natshin: “Metal on metal, faint but growing louder as the desert wind caught Hannibal's iron bell” (316).
Part 3, Chapters 29-32 Analysis
The last few chapters are dedicated to the memory of those who were lost or left behind in Burma. Though the Freestones have long considered Burma their home, Jackson is forced to reconcile the fact that Burma has never been his own. Instead, the Freestones make a new home, which is their own because it is full of their family. The novel ends with a satisfying reunion of the entire family for Nick’s birthday—his mother, father, Bernard, Indaw, and Mya. Because family is so integral to the emotional core of the narrative, the most satisfying end is one of reunification and peace; for so many years, this has been the desire of all of these characters.
Though the violence has ceased by the end of the novel, there is still a memory of that trauma in the final pages of the novel. Nick memorializes Hannibal when he places his iron bell on the fence post of his new home in Australia, and it rings in the wind as it used to on Hannibal’s neck. In these final chapters, Burma is given back to its people—Hilltop stays in his homeland and so does Hannibal, another native Burman who lost his home and his freedom to Japanese troops. There is a moment of pure freedom and peace when Indaw discusses the sightings of Hilltop and his enormous elephant riding on Freestone Island: “Some say that on moonlight nights, an ancient mahout riding a giant koongyi can be seen along the shores of Freestone Island” (316). After decades of colonization, Burma is finally free.
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