When the Elephants Dance is a nontraditional war fiction. Before weapons technology in the 20th century widened the scope of warfare, war fiction took place on a battlefield deliberately far from concentrations of civilians. Battles pitted armies (or navies) against each other: uniformed, armed non-civilians trained in the strategies of warfare and willing to accept the poor conditions, the life and death risks, the hard sacrifices, the glory and the tragedy of their commitment to being part of war. In the 20th century, however, war moved into civilian areas—entire cities became acceptable, even inevitable targets and civilians became part of the fighting. They suffered the same conditions and took the same risks previously reserved for uniformed combatants.

Holthe captures the reality of ordinary civilians caught up in war. The family and friends bunkered together here are all ages, both genders, varying economic classes, and different levels of health and physical mobility and mental soundness. They are, in short, a typical gathering of civilians. They are not soldiers. Domingo is the closest to a soldier among those hiding in the Karangalan cellar, and he is an insurrectionist, fighting an unconventional style of guerilla warfare that nevertheless targets uniformed combatants, not civilians.