The Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe

Together these different elements encourage readers and the audience to reflect on relationships between image, form, and text they also prompt the re-imagining of the reception of text.

When you consider elements of art, you may think of color, line, shape, form, space, and texture.Īrtists’ books are works of art that use elements of the traditional book form in combination with elements of art. What comes to mind when you think of a book? What are the typical parts of a book? How about the purpose of a book? The parts that go into forming a book usually consist of the covers, pages, text, binding, and its spine. See current hours >ĥ0 Features of Special Collections: The Blind Men and the Elephant Shields Library hours remain reduced through the weekend.

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If you’re struggling to see the situation from the other person’s perspective, try using the following questions to get the ball rolling.50 Features of Special Collections: The Blind Men and the Elephant – UC Davis Library Skip to main content My Account Off-Campus Access Give

The next time you are absolutely convinced you are right, try to take a step back and look at the elephant from different angle. Our thinking is so natural to us that it seems impossible to view the situation any other way. How many times do we look at an issue through our own lens and completely believe the way we view the situation is right, and the way others view it is wrong? When you think about it, we all see the world through our own filters.

He shouted, “The elephant is just like a fan!” The sixth man, holding the elephant’s tail said, “Have you all gone crazy? The elephant is like a rope!”Įach man was completely convinced that all of the others were wrong, when in fact, they were all correct. The second man, feeling the tusk said, “No, it feels like a spear!” The third man approached the animal, and with the squirming trunk in his hands proclaimed, “What are you talking about? The elephant is like a snake!” The fourth man, feeling the elephant’s knee said, “It is clear that the elephant is like a tree.” The fifth man was touching the elephant’s ear. He explains that the first man approached the elephant and said, “The elephant is like a wall”. Poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) wrote about “six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined, who went to see the elephant (though all of them were blind), that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.”

The Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe