Tusks function as a symbol in The Memory of an Elephant, embodying the tension between an elephant's identity and humanity’s capacity to reduce that identity to a commodity. Within the herd, tusks serve as instruments of protection and markers of maturity. Moon Mother gores She Storms to save her drowning calf, and afterward, Ishi defends his mother’s violence before the assembled elders: “[S]he had no choice but to use her tusks” (9). In this context, tusks are extensions of familial love, wielded in defense of the vulnerable. As Ishi grows into adulthood, his tusks become increasingly associated with his strength and position within the elephant world, linking them to his sense of self and belonging.

Yet the same tusks that signify belonging and strength within elephant society become nothing more than extractable wealth in human hands. The poachers who slaughter Ishi’s birth herd hack the tusks from the elephants faces and leave the bodies behind because “the lives of these animals mean[] only one thing to these men, and that [i]s money” (14). The act of removal is itself a desecration, transforming living animals into sources of profit. This pattern extends from local poachers to the ivory trade, where tusks become commodities in a system that values profit over life.

Kamau’s decision to remove Ishi’s tusks after death completes the symbol’s arc. By taking them before poachers can, he reclaims the tusks from those who would profit from them and restores them to an act of care, ensuring that even in death, Ishi’s body isn’t exploited but honored.