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).