Life — December 8, 1921 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of This Life Magazine Page This page contains two unrelated pieces: **"What Is Home Without an Elephant?"** is a humorous advice column about keeping pet elephants in homes. The accompanying illustration shows an elephant in a bathtub. This appears to be gentle satire on the Victorian trend of exotic pet ownership among the wealthy—the impractical notion of maintaining large wild animals domestically. The advice (breaking them of bad habits, using peanuts as rewards, etc.) treats elephants as comedic household problems. **"My Buddy"** is a patriotic poem honoring soldiers who died in World War I (referenced as "the Unknown Dead" and "broken men who fared with me overseas"). The illustration shows civilians gathered below what appears to be a memorial or monument, looking upward. This reflects post-WWI mourning culture and the valorization of war dead common in 1920s American periodicals.