An Elephant in the Garden

Mutti, Lizzie and Karli’s mother, is a major character whose storyline illuminates many of the terrible consequences of war. Mutti is characterized through Lizzie’s memories of her in Dresden and during the family’s perilous winter trek across Germany. Mutti is a woman of strength and compassion; her most essential character traits are her deep love for her family and her fierce determination to protect them. When Papi, the children’s father, leaves home to serve in the Garman army, Mutti fills the void his absence creates. She keeps him present in Lizzie and Karli’s lives by reading his letters to them and having “family moments,” holding hands while thinking of Papi and praying for him; she also places each of his letters on the mantle beside his picture. Mutti is determined to keep her family together despite being physically separated by the war.

Mutti’s love and loyalty emerge further in her relationship with Marlene, an elephant at the zoo where Mutti works. Mutti was present at Marlene’s birth and became her caretaker. When Marlene’s mother dies several years later, Mutti knows that the young elephant is grieving and feels great empathy, comforting her and creating a deep bond between them. When the bombing of Dresden is imminent, Mutti takes Marlene home with her each night to prevent her from being shot with the other animals if an attack occurs. In explaining to Lizzie that Dresden will be bombed, Mutti tells her, “We shall survive this. You, me, and little Karli. […] I shall make sure also that Marlene survives with us. I will not let this war take from me all those I love” (42). When wave after wave of fighter planes do bomb the city, Mutti’s determination and strength of character keep her family alive as they flee the inferno.

Finding Peter Kamm at her sister’s farm reveals other aspects of Mutti’s character. Realizing he is one of the RAF flight crew who bombed Dresden, Mutti is filled with hatred so intense that she nearly kills him with a pitchfork before Lizzie intervenes. Ultimately, Mutti cannot contribute to the war’s destruction by causing someone else’s death—even an enemy’s. Mutti can, however, turn Peter over to the German authorities, and she intends to do so until Peter demonstrates his own character by saving Karli’s life. Peter’s courage and compassion for Karli lead Mutti to embrace him as one of her family, and she subsequently protects him from being captured by the Germans. Mutti’s love for her family, her loyalty to them, and her determination to see that they survive the war motivate her actions throughout the novel.

In Lizzie’s memories, Karli is her little brother, an eight-year-old full of energy and endless questions. In the peaceful days before the war, he is Lizzie’s childhood companion; during the war, they experience together all the terrible ways their lives change. Karli’s character underscores the novel’s loss-of-innocence theme, as the war invades his childhood, forcing him to contend with its consequences. However, the war does not destroy Karli’s spirit or ability to find joy in life. His presence in the novel illustrates the resilience of children.

A natural performer, Karli loves having an audience. He enjoys showing off his skills as a juggler, and when the neighborhood children come to see Marlene in the garden, Karli shows her off, too, making sure to establish that Marlene is his elephant. Like Mutti and Lizzie, Karli loves Marlene, but his relationship with her is different. Marlene is Karli’s companion and source of joy. When he rides on her back, Karli forgets the disability that makes walking difficult for him, and after meeting Marlene, the neighborhood children no longer tease him about it. Karli, who is never judgmental, accepts these children’s friendship, just as he later becomes friends with the enemy airman Peter Kamm.

The war first becomes real for Karli when his father leaves to serve in the German army. He often asks if Papi is dead, and Mutti and Lizzie must reassure him that Papi will come home after the war. Karli’s superficial understanding of the war evolves after he and his family become refugees. He soon learns that war means being cold, hungry, and exhausted—so exhausted that he can no longer walk and must ride sitting atop Marlene. He understands that he and his family are in danger and that Peter will be captured or killed if his identity is revealed. When Karli raises suspicions about Peter’s identity by juggling with Peter’s British compass, Peter is almost arrested. After that, Karli no longer shows off: “[T]he disaster he had so nearly brought upon [his family]” changes Karli (177), as he more fully understands how the war endangers his family every day.

Peter Kamm is a 21-year-old Canadian serving as a navigator in the Royal Air Force. During the RAF’s raid on Dresden, Peter’s plane is shot down and he is the only member of his flight crew who survives. Peter’s subsequent relationships with Lizzie, Mutti, and Karli develop his character and theirs, and his presence in the narrative supports major themes in the novel. Lizzie’s falling in love with Peter plays a significant role in her coming of age, and Mutti’s love for Peter, despite his being an enemy soldier, illustrates the deeper meaning of family.

Peter’s character also illustrates the terrible consequences of war. Affable and creative by nature, Peter was once an actor who enjoyed performing and a young man with close ties to his parents and a love of the outdoors. Thrown into the war, Peter experiences shock and horror when Dresden is bombed. He believed that bombing the city would be like the Germans’ bombing of London: “I was there,” he says. “And that was terrible enough. But last night it looked like the fires of hell. That’s what we’re doing, all of us, on your side, on our side, we are making a hell on earth” (101-02). As an enemy combatant behind German lines, Peter will be shot if he is captured. Having learned to speak German from his Swiss mother protects him to some extent as he and Lizzie’s family escape to the west, but his life—and theirs, for aiding him—is in constant danger, creating narrative suspense. Without Peter’s navigator’s compass, his military training, and his courage in risking capture to steal food, Lizzie and her family would not have survived the war.

Through Lizzie’s memories of Marlene, the elephant becomes an important character in the novel—one who plays a vital role in the survival of Lizzie’s family when they flee Dresden after the bombing. Ever gentle and patient, Marlene carries Karli on her back when he is too tired to walk, and when the choir children join Lizzie’s family going west, Marlene lets the children take turns riding on her, lifting everyone’s spirits. Marlene keeps Lizzie going as much as Mutti’s encouragement: “Through wind and rain, mud and frost, Marlene just plodded on. She was our pacemaker, and we kept with her” (148). Hearing Marlene’s “hollow rumblings of contentment from inside her” makes Lizzie smile (148-49), and Marlene’s “endless patience and perseverance” give everyone “great comfort and courage” (149). During Lizzie and her family’s most difficult days, Marlene is their inspiration.

Marlene’s character supports the novel’s theme regarding the meaning of family. Despite being an elephant, Marlene is part of Lizzie’s family; they are all bound to one another by mutual feelings of love and loyalty, beginning with Mutti and Marlene’s relationship at the zoo. Feeling grief for the death of her mother, Marlene suffers and cries when Mutti is not with her; for her part, Mutti worries continually about Marlene and cries at the thought of her being shot if Dresden is bombed. Lizzie recalls that during the long trek to the west, Marlene “treated us all now, Peter included, with great affection, as if we were her family. […] She was forever touching us with the soft tip of her trunk, reassuring us, and reassuring herself maybe” (149). Marlene comforts and is comforted by her human family.

Losing Marlene after finally reaching the American forces brings enormous grief to Lizzie and her family. Although they never find her in Germany, Marlene continues to play a role in the novel. Lizzie and Peter’s reunion with her years later at a circus in Canada wraps up the loose threads of Lizzie’s story, and a picture in Lizzie’s photo album of her with Marlene leaves no doubt that the elephant was very real indeed, as Lizzie always insisted to Karl and her nurse.