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.