The Symbolism of Power and Perception in Slawomir Mrożek’s The Elephant

Photo by Amar Hussain on Unsplash

I’ve been around long enough to know that power, at its most primal level, is a game of perception.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a corporate boardroom or a back alley; it’s all about how people see you, how they make you out to be.

If you’re the elephant, everyone looks at you, expecting you to crush the others underfoot or break down a door.

That’s what people think when they hear the word “elephant,” right? Big, powerful, unstoppable—but the truth is often more tragic and twisted than that.

In Slawomir Mrożek’s short play The Elephant, we get this layered exploration of how power can be a construct built on nothing but perception.

We’re all fumbling around in a dark room, pretending we know what the hell we’re doing, when in fact, we’re all just waiting for the light to come on and show us the empty chair we’ve been fighting for.

Let’s break this down—sharply, cleanly—like a philosophical drink you can down in one shot.

The Elephant as Power

In the play, the elephant is the symbol of power, a grand metaphor.

A solid chunk of the audience will believe the elephant is some kind of legend, stomping its way through the crowd, while the elephant itself just wants to sit in a corner and nap.

It’s stuck in this existential feedback loop of others’ perceptions: to the audience, it is the mighty elephant, but to itself, it’s nothing more than a tired animal trying to keep up with the show.

Let’s not beat around the bush. Mrożek shows us that real power is often nothing more than an illusion. It’s a freakin’ costume, a circus act, and most of us—like the circus performers—are just pulling the strings to make the show go on.

Take, for example, the character of the trainer in The Elephant.

He’s convinced that the elephant is powerful, and so are the people watching the show. But it’s the audience who wants to see the elephant as powerful. It’s the kind of collective delusion that makes the world spin faster and faster until we’re all dizzy, living in a feedback loop of our own making.

The Role of Perception in Our Understanding of Power

The way people perceive power is the real tragedy here. Take The Elephant and imagine it’s just a metaphor for your own life—your job, your relationships, your very existence.

People see you in one way, and they expect you to conform to that. They want you to be big, important, undefeated, but inside, you’re just some guy who’s trying not to fall apart.

In literature, this theme plays out again and again. Take George Orwell’s 1984. Big Brother doesn’t really have to be everywhere—he just has to be perceived to be everywhere.

Power isn’t real unless people believe it’s real. In the same way, the elephant’s power isn’t rooted in its physical strength; it’s rooted in how it’s seen.

In Mrożek’s play, the elephant’s struggle with this image of strength is a reflection of the struggle most of us face in life.

We’re all just animals trying to make sense of the roles we’re forced into by others’ expectations. Mrożek doesn’t sugarcoat the pain that comes with it. It’s a mockery—a cruel one—that life demands we keep the illusion alive, even when we’re dying inside.

Table 1: Perception vs. Reality in Power and the Elephant

PerceptionReality
The elephant is powerful.The elephant is just doing what it’s told.
The circus trainer controls the elephant.The trainer is a puppet of public expectation.
The elephant’s audience is in awe.The audience is simply part of the ritual.
The elephant must perform to prove its strength.The elephant’s “performance” is an illusion.

Explaining to the Apprentice: Perception in Simple Terms

Alright, kid. Let’s break this down like I’m explaining it to a five-year-old.

Imagine there’s a big, shiny toy elephant in a toy store. People come from all over to see it because they think it’s cool, but the toy is actually just sitting there doing nothing.

That’s how power works. Sometimes, people think something is powerful just because it looks powerful. But in reality, it might just be sitting there, not doing much of anything at all.

Now, think about you. People might think you’re really good at something, like being smart or strong.

But the truth is, you’re probably just figuring it out as you go. The trick is to not let what others think define who you are. Don’t let the toy elephant’s fake power fool you.

The Scientific Breakdown (Buckling Down with Reality)

When we talk about power as perception, we’re diving into what social scientists call the “social construction of reality.” It’s not new, but it hits the nail on the head.

The idea is simple: reality isn’t something “out there” waiting for us to discover. It’s made up of the beliefs, norms, and stories we tell each other.

In psychology, there’s something called “cognitive dissonance,” which means people will adjust their beliefs to make sense of contradictions.

So if they believe the elephant is powerful, they’ll keep finding ways to make that belief fit, even if the elephant just wants to take a nap.

Power, therefore, doesn’t just come from what is—it comes from what we agree on.

From a philosophical standpoint, this links back to the classic debate between idealism and materialism.

Idealists (like the famous Berkeley) argue that reality is shaped by perception—there is no objective reality without a mind to perceive it.

Materialists would call that nonsense, pointing to the concrete existence of things as proof that reality is independent of perception.

But here’s the raw truth: power doesn’t care about what’s real. It cares about what people believe is real.

And in that sense, it’s all an illusion.

Sure, here’s a section that links The Elephant to The Emperor’s New Clothes and is written in a Bukowski-style tone:

The Elephant and the Emperor: A Naked Truth

You know that old story, The Emperor’s New Clothes? You’ve heard it a thousand times.

The emperor parades around in a new suit that no one can see—except for him and the con men who sold it to him.

It’s the same damn thing in The Elephant. People are caught up in the lie because no one wants to look like the fool.

Everyone’s waiting for someone else to say, “Hey, wait a minute, there’s nothing special about this elephant!”

But nobody does. Just like the emperor, the circus acts like the elephant is this magnificent creature, and they all pretend to believe it, because that’s how power works.

The reality is, everyone knows it’s a lie.

They just don’t want to be the one to admit it. The audience, the trainer, the performers—they all pretend they see something that isn’t there.

You think they don’t know that the emperor’s naked? You think they don’t know the elephant is just an animal doing tricks for peanuts?

They do. But it’s easier to go along with it. It’s easier to pretend you see the clothes, pretend you see the power. It’s all part of the game.

It’s the same game we play in life. You show up to work, you slap on a fake smile, and you tell everyone how great things are.

But deep down, you know—you know it’s all just an illusion. Power is a costume, and we’re all playing the role.

You want to be the emperor with clothes, you want to be the elephant with power, but the truth is, we’re all standing around, naked, hoping no one calls us out.

Conclusion

The elephant is both powerful and powerless. It’s powerful in the eyes of those who believe it is, but powerless in its own right, because it can’t escape the expectations forced upon it.

In the end, The Elephant is a reflection of us all—stuck in roles, stuck in perceptions, stuck in illusions.

So, what do we do?

Do we keep playing along with this circus, pretending we’re big, bad elephants?

Or do we strip the illusion away and see things for what they really are?

The answer isn’t easy, and it doesn’t come in a neat, pretty package.

But that’s the beauty of Mrożek’s play—it challenges you to question what you see and, more importantly, what you believe.

At the end of the day, it’s all about the show. And we’re all just performers in it. The question is: who gets to control the script?

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