The White Bone

The White Bone is a novel published by the Canadian author Barbara Gowdy in 1999. In telling the story of African elephants with adult, anthropomorphized personalities, the book bears a striking resemblance to Richard Adams' Watership Down, only with elephants instead of rabbits. Gowdy's extensive research on elephant behavior heavily informed the creation of the elephant culture and world-building she presents in the book.

The book's perspective is told entirely from the viewpoint of various elephant characters in Africa. The society is a matriarchal or matrilineal society in that all females and all adolescent males live together, with the children inheriting the titles of the matriarchal line of heritage. Meanwhile, adult males live as loners, apart from society. The protagonist is a young female elephant or "cow" named Mud. Mud is born into the She-M family but is abandoned and orphaned by her family. Alone on the savannah, she is found by the She-S family of elephants who reluctantly decide to adopt her as their own. The She-S clan soon discovers that Mud is able to see visions, both of future events and of current events occurring somewhere else. Mud also becomes pregnant shortly after being adopted.

Despite Mud's talents--or perhaps because of them--most of the She-S family views Mud with suspicion and a measure of unease. The major exception to this rule is Date Bed, who becomes Mud's best friend. Date Bed also possesses a special talent, though she is far more affable than Mud. Date Bed is referred to as a "Mind Talker." She is capable of reading the minds of other elephants as well as other species. She is also unique in that she is in "love" with a male elephant named Tall Time. Because adult male elephants do not stay in society after coming of age, Date Bed's romantic love for Tall Time is considered unprecedented by many of her peers. Despite being a pioneer in romance, Date Bed has yet to mate.



The She-S family reaches a crisis point in the midst of a long drought and a huge increase in local poachers. To save themselves, the clan decides the only option is to find the "Safe Place," a sort of promised land untouched by drought or poaching. To find the Safe Place, the elephants must first find the White Bone. The White Bone is the bone of a newborn elephant that points in the direction of the Safe Place.

While journeying to the Safe Place, they come across a female cheetah named Me-Me who says she knows the way to the Safe Place. In return for showing them the way, Me-Me demands that both Mud and another pregnant elephant named She-Snorts give up their unborn calves to the cheetah, who loves dining on baby elephants. She-Snorts reluctantly makes the deal, which is controversial for many in the clan because they do not trust Me-Me.

She-Snorts is thrust into a leadership position as the family matriarch after most of the She-S clan is slaughtered by poachers. Meanwhile, Date Bed survives but is separated by the rest of the family, including her best friend, Mud. At first, Mud insists that the family track down Date Bed. But over time, Mud abandons hope that Date Bed is still alive. This is a major emotional turning point in the novel, as the hope of survival begins to give way to despair and the ever-increasing likelihood that the clan will never find the Safe Place.



In fact, the story ends ambiguously, but it is highly suggested that none of the elephants ever make it to the Safe Place--that is, if it even exists. This despairing conclusion has two major implications. The first is in highlighting the hopelessness faced by endangered species like the African elephant, and the lack of control they possess in their own survival. The second is the importance of myth to various societies' efforts to survive. Even if the Safe Place doesn't really exist, its legendary status is a real incentive to push the elephants to continue trying to survive.

Finally, memory is a major theme of the novel. The term "an elephant never forgets" is invoking for two reasons. The first is the fact that elephantine memory works differently than human memory, in that elephants remember all the events of their lives equally, while humans prioritize certain "important" events in their life over others. The second implication of that phrase is that, while elephants usually go senile if allowed to survive into old age, the harsh realities of elephant life means that few of them ever live that long. In this sense, it's darkly true that "an elephant never forgets" because they never get a chance to forget.

Though fantastical in nature, The White Bone provides a profound and powerful message for conservationists worried about endangered species around the world.