Quarter 2 OR Week 7 Post B

Unfortunately, this is my last post for Water for Elephants. It was a spectacular book and I will never forget it.

The story of Water for Elephants is set during both the Great Depression and the present day. It depicts the life of one man: Jacob Jankowski. The book begins with Jacob at the age of 90 or 93 in a nursing home. The circus is there for the weekend and lots of the old folks are receiving visitors. During the period of less than a week, Jacob recounts his entire experience of 3 1/2 months with the Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a train circus running in the Depression era. It all started one day at Cornell University, where Jacob was training to be a vet. His parents died in a fatal car crash and Jacob's world crumbled around him. Not knowing what to do, he ends up jumping a train, a circus train, to be exact, the Benzini Brother's train. There he begins his experience as a vet for all the animals on a circus, meeting quite a few interesting characters on the way. These include a working man named Camel- who secured Jacob a spot on the circus, Earl- the friendly security guard, a couple of helpful working men including Diamond Joe, Grady, Bill, and Pete, Walter (aka Kinko)- a stubborn, but quite friendly clown, once you got to know him, August- a crazy equestrian director who caused some of Jacob's most hated times in his life, Uncle Al- the ringmaster who was an irrational and inhumane man, and lastly Marlena- the love of Jacob's life.

The storyline shifts back and forth between young Jacob and old Jacob. We learn of Jacob's hard times in the nursing home, and how he's never been able to let go of the secrets from his time spent on the circus. He is fortunate enough to meet a nice nurse by the name of Rosemary. She is the only one who understands him and eventually learns a little about his previous life. He is a little loopy at times, not remembering where he is- a side effect of a concussion, but overall Jacob seems to be in good shape. He's a lively man with centuries of stories to be told yet no one to tell. Gruen carefully incorporates the ignorance of our society through the mistreatment of Jacob.

**CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT! The following paragraphs contain spoilers of the book.**

As the plot thickens, we continue to travel with Jacob from stop to stop, from show to show. The Benzini Brother's seem to be thriving during one of the darkest periods of American History. In no time at all, they get themselves an elephant (the inspiration for the title?) and with it, an elephant show. The money continues to rain in, but it is still short despite appearances. Before long, the success of the show begins to decline and everything starts falling apart once again for Jacob. Two of his closest friends get redlighted and it's likely they didn't survive. In the entire time he is with the circus, Jacob isn't paid even once, and that goes for the working men and eventually for the performers. Slowly, the stability of the circus disintegrates and the nets of lies start to come down. Everything unravels in one-fell-swoop as the animals stampede out of the menagerie in one chaotic show. This is the beginning of the end.

Soon it's all over and workers and performers alike are all out of a job. Both Uncle Al and August have been murdered along with countless other workers who were redlighted. The politics and secrets of the circus are revealed, but not all of them. There is one secret that Jacob has kept with him for 70 years, unable to tell and no one to tell it to. Rosie's heroic act is safe with him.

**END OF SPOILERS**

Even as an old man, Jacob misses the circus. It's been his life ever since the fateful day of his parents death. The end of his career is bittersweet, which is what Gruen's novel truly is. There are moments of pure delight where it feels like nothing bad can happen and nothing can touch us. Moments of true ignorant bliss. But there are other times, times when happiness seems so far away. Times where politics, secrets, and lies dominant our inner being, and there's no escape, no matter where we turn. But that's life. Regardless of the fanatical world Gruen creates, it feels all so real. There's no doubt in my mind that some of these events may have actually happened. The story Gruen depicts pulls us in like a vortex, wanting to stay within reality, but unable to resist the pull of a whole other world. And as the circus is an escape for Jacob, Water for Elephants is an escape for the rest of us, away from the horrors of reality, into a different time. Like all good fiction, Water for Elephants draws us into the world and life of another, of Jacob Jankowski, who taught us that when everything feels right, then we are truly home.

Quarter 2 OR Week 7 Post A

Vocab:
querulously (323)- full of complaints; complaining
halcyon (327)- peaceful; happy; carefree; prosperous

Figurative Language:
"Behind us, a wall of badgers. In front of us, a dozen alligators. I wake up in a cold sweat. The situation is entirely untenable, and I know it" (281). Gruen uses a dream Jacob has as a metaphor for the predicament he is in. In the dream, Jacob and Walter's dog, Queenie, are blocked from the train by alligators, and stopped from going backward by badgers. In his life, Jacob has landed himself in a similar situation, with hiding Camel and his affair with Marlena. He can neither go back nor go forward. No matter what he does, it's not going to be pretty.

"My brain rolls in my head. I think it's been shaken loose" (291). Jacob's brain hasn't been literally shaken loose and is probably not literally rolling around in his head. This is kind of like a combination of a hyperbole and personification. He is exaggerating to describe how horrible he feels (hyperbole part). Also, brains don't literally roll, that's something humans or animals or objects do, not body organs (personification). In reality, he is describing the effects of a concussion.

"She lifts the stake as though it weighs nothing and splits his head in a single clean movement- ponk- like cracking a hardboiled egg" (309). This quote has multiple figurative language applications in it. The first is a simile: "like cracking a hardboiled egg." This comparing Rosie's splitting of August's head with the cracking of a hardboiled egg using the term "like" which make it a simile. Second, an onomatopoeia is also present. The word "ponk" sounds exactly like the sound it was meant to represent. In one sentence, Gruen incorporates two uses of figurative language, stressing the description of the horrid act.

Quote:
"In Poughkeepsie, we are raided...And then we are run out of town. In Hartford, a handful of patrons take serious exception to Rosie's non performance...And then we are run out of town. The following morning is payday, and...For the first time in the show's history, there is no money for performers" (282). The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth is on the decline. Things go from bad to worse and from worse to disaster. Their show is taking a dive and therefore so are the paychecks. They don't have the luxuries that were once available to them and slowly yet surely, the Benzini Brother's show is becoming one of the shows that they themselves had once chased after: shows who fall apart and get picked to pieces by the surviving ones. This is the beginning of the end for the Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

Theme:
If there's something you want to do, just do it. Like Jacob says, "So what if I'm ninety-three? So what if I'm ancient and cranky and my body's a wreck? If they're willing to accept me and my guilty conscience, why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?" (331).

Quarter 2 OR Week 6 Post B

Relationships are in important aspect of life and definitely so in Water for Elephants. Jacob, the main character, meets many people throughout the novel and the relationships he develops with them shape both him and his new acquaintance. Relationships can also shape the lives of the people in addition to their personalities. For example, Jacob's positive relationship with Camel saved him from getting redlighted (thrown off the train), and because Camel helped Jacob when he was in need, Jacob was the one to get Camel a doctor when he wasn't feeling too well. There are many relationships in this story that help change the life of Jacob.

The first would be between old Jacob and a nurse named Rosemary. Jacob, at the age of 90 or 93, is at a nursing home where he feels malcontent and unappreciated. The rest of the nurses and doctors treat him like a cranky old man, but Rosemary treats him like an actual person. This positive relationship that develops keeps Jacob from going over the edge. By knowing someone actually wants him around, Jacob is able to maintain a little more sanity than what he may have had before. This quote said by Jacob shows how unusual it is for him to feel like an actual person: "I'm so used to being scolded and herded and managed and handled that I'm no longer sure how to react when someone treats me like a real person" (176). It gives us insight on why Jacob must be so grumpy all the time, or may seem unpleasant, but now we know the truth. There just aren't many people who treat him like a real person, which is probably true for many of the elderly. But with Rosemary, Jacob is able to make progress and feel and act like a real person again.

This relationship is shared between younger Jacob and Walter (or Kinko the clown). Walter is definitely a friend to Jacob, despite his original dislike of him. Unlike the other circus performers, Walter treats Jacob equally even though he is a working man. Both men are outcasts because Jacob is a worker on the verge of being treated like a performer and Walter is a performer on the verge of being treated like a worker. They find comfort within each other and they look out for each other. When sometimes it feels like no one is being friendly to Jacob, he always has Walter. Workers are worked like animals in the circus and it must be nice for Jacob to have a real friend who isn't either a) jealous of his status within the performers, b) resenting him for his ability or c) looking down at him.

The last point deals with the relationship between Jacob and August. August is the equestrian director of the circus and must think Jacob has a lower rank than he does. But sometimes, Jacob is more logical and knows how to handle things better than August, which ticks him off. It's a complicated relationship. At times, August is kind to Jacob, treating him like an equal and a friend. But other times, Jacob is the source of release for August's anger. It's unwise to upset or undermine August. You never know where you'll find yourself in the morning. Although August may seem like a friend, he is really just Jacob's boss.

Lastly, there is the relationship between Jacob and Marlena. Marlena is August's wife which means she has spent quite a bit of time with Jacob (he gets invited to outings). But regardless of Marlena being married, Jacob still has feelings for her and manages to kiss her too. Of course it would be easier of Marlena didn't like Jacob back but even she admits that she has some feelings for him. "I hardly know what to think anymore. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you" (195). This makes their relationship a lot more complicated than it has to be. If they ignore their feelings, it is likely that they will drift away from each other. But if they act on them, then August might just end of murdering both of them.

These four examples display how relationships can change someone and the life they will lead. This can be applied in real life as well. It's wise to carefully choose the people that you allow to affect your life because sometimes the friends we have end up shaping who we are, in spite of what we actually want to be.

Quarter 2 OR Week 6 Post A

Vocab:
exertion (152)- vigorous action or effort
dervish (153)- a member of various Muslim ascetic orders, some of which carry on ecstatic behaviors such as twirling or energetic dancing.

Figurative Language:
"And then she's gone again, unwinding herself like a ribbon" (152). Jacob compares Marlena's dancing , when she twirls away from him, like that of a ribbon unwinding itself. This is a simile because it uses the word "like".

"Rosemary appears from a side hall like an angel from heaven" (174). This is also a simile. It is comparing Rosemary with an angel using the word "like".

"I'm so used to being scolded and herded and managed and handled that I'm no longer sure how to react when someone treats me like a real person" (176). I think this is a metaphor because Jacob is implying that he is being compared to an animal with the actions others do to him.

Quote:
"I have just remembered the small bottle of brackish liquid Camel offered me my first day on the show. 'I'm okay. Thank God.'" (184). This quote has many different implications. First, it gives us another idea of the setting and the time era. We are more aware that this is during the depression and prohibition because alcoholic beverages are outlawed, hence the reason Camel was drinking jake. Second, the book has gone pretty far into the plot and it's hard to remember what exactly happened in the beginning. This was a good strategy for the author to use to relate back to Jacob's first day at the Circus. And lastly, we become even more aware of the cruelty of the times. There have been moments where it feels like Jacob's life at the circus isn't that bad, but by knowing what might have happened to Jacob if he had taken a drink, we remember the horrors of the Circus.

Theme:
For everything you do, there's always a consequence.

Quarter 2 OR Week 5 Post B

Jacob's life at the circus has enveloped most of the book. We learn little about his life before the circus except that he was training to be a vet at Cornell University and that his parents died in a tragic accident. "'So, what's your story, anyway?' says Kinko. The sunlight flashes like knives through the slats behind him. I cover my eyes and grimace. 'No, I mean it. Where'd you come from?' 'Nowhere,' I say" (144). Jacob tries to erase his past and start a new life. It makes me wonder, when he talks about his wife as an old man, if she even knew his past. If he ever told his children about his life, or if anyone even knows. This avoidance reminds me of a movie we watched in Spanish class called La Historia Oficial. It's the story of a woman living during the time of The Dirty War in Argentina. During that time, the government is ruled through a military regime kind of like an oligarchy. They are in control of everything and anyone who upsets the government disappears. The woman, Alicia, has a daughter named Gaby who is adopted. No one knows where she comes from and who her mother was, or even if her mother was willing to give Gaby up or if Gaby was just taken away from her mother. Gaby and Jacob are similar in the way that their pasts are being erased, but Jacob is erasing his own past and Gaby's past has been erased for her. I don't understand why Jacob denies everything that's happened to him leading up to the circus, but maybe that's the way for a lot of people working with the Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Maybe it's a place people have gone to run away from their past and make a new life for them. Maybe being on the move has helped them from establishing roots anywhere or getting to attached to anything. After all, isn't that what Jacob has done? After the death of his parents, he ran away from everything he knew so he could start over. He didn't have cent to his name or anything else but his name. Maybe by keeping his past in denial, Jacob is able to avoid the pain that his parents' death has caused him, and being so young, maybe Jacob just doesn't know who to deal with the pain. The circus was his escape, and he took it.

Quarter 2 OR Week 5 Post A

Vocab:
emaciated(140)- marked by abnormal thinness either caused by lack of nutrition or disease
stewing(144)- [informal] to be in a state of anxiety or agitation

Figurative Language:
"--anything to replace the smell of death"(145). This is kind of like personification, giving an inanimate object or idea, like death, a characteristic of a human, smell. It's also imagery- appealing to the sense of smell. Jacob probably can't literally smell death, but it gives the reader a good picture of what the place was like.

"A love for these animals wells up in me suddenly, a flash flood"(145-146). Jacob is comparing the feeling of love for the animals with a flash flood by using a metaphor. He doesn't use the word "like" or "as" which means the comparison cannot be a simile.

"...and there it is, solid as an obelisk and viscous like water"(145). This simile is a comparison of Jacob's realization- that he needs to protect the animals in the circus- and an obelisk or water. It's a simile because "as" is used.

Quote: "A pause. 'Kinko?' 'Yeah?' 'I appreciate the offer.' 'Sure.' A longer pause. 'Jacob?' 'Yeah?' 'You can call me Walter if you want.'"(144-145). Although this may not seem to be a really significant quote, I think it actually is. In the beginning of the book, when Jacob first meets Kinko the clown, their relationship is a disaster from the start. Kinko even told Jacob that only his friends are allowed to call him Walter (Kinko's real name). But at this point, Jacob has truly made a friend. Although August may appear to welcome him, I really think August resents Jacob's success and his knowledge. Besides Marlena, Jacob doesn't really have any other friends at the circus. All the performers think he is below them, all the workers are jealous of his special treatment. At this point, Jacob has made an unlikely friend, but he's a real friend.


Theme:
First impressions aren't always true and everything isn't always what it seems.

Quarter 2 OR Week 4 Post B

How many people have been to a circus before? How many people know what it's like to experience on of its spectacular performances? Sure, there are things about a circus that we do know, but after reading almost half of Water for Elephants, I realized that there is also a lot of stuff I don't know.

A circus, like many other areas of business, is run with a hierarchy. You've got the alpha male, the ringmaster most likely, who makes all the important decisions and runs the circus, but he does most of the talking while everyone else does the work. As for the other people, they are separated into two groups: performers and working men. Under the working men, you've got the "managers" so to speak. They are in charge of what I would call "project leaders". The "project leaders" are in charge of a different section, whether that be setting up tents, cleaning up the animal cages, helping prepare the meals, etc. Under each different section, there are the lowest group of workers, usually newbies or people who don't have a significant amount of talent doing managing work or even people who are just good at physical labor and are most beneficial when they stay where they are. Within the performers, there are people who are given the task of coming up with acts in the show. These are people like August, who are in charge of specific acts: animals, magic, freaks, acrobats, etc. And the people who take direction from them, are the performers themselves, but they still have their own importance and influence, so it isn't as much of a hierarchy system of management like the one with the working men. In the performers, the system is more of importance and how much the audience likes them. And lastly, the performers are clearly above the working men, but there are occasional overlaps among "managers" and less significant performers. A person can always find their social status by where they sleep on the train. The further towards the front they are, they less important they are (working men are in the front half of the train), which means that further back they are, the more important (performers, and Uncle Al himself). Jacob, being a vet, means he is technically considered a working man. But he shares a train car with a clown called Kinko (real name is Walter), who is obviously a performer. This shows Jacob's importance in the circus, and possibly also Kinko's insignificance.

I was rather surprised to learn about all this. I just thought a circus was a show performance. It's almost like a business, government, community/ society, or even a clique. There are unspoken rules about social status, who is the queen bee and who are the workers. Favorites are clearly rewarded, and interest of act plays a role as well. To make matters worse, there are always people who try and make other people's lives harder, like August does to Kinko. Not only is Kinko in one of the farthest forward performing cars, he makes Kinko share a car with Jacob, who is considered a working man. A circus has many things in common with all groups. There is corruption, favoritism, unfairness, and when you're at the bottom, there's nothing you can do about any of it.