Analysis Of Porter's The Circus In The Winter

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“Seeing the elephant” is an expression used to describe someone who experiences more than what they desired, at least Wallace Porter did. In a Cathy Day’s book, The Circus in the Winter, she has a compilation of stories from generations of the Great Porter Circus who were all centered in Lima, Indiana. Out of those people, Wallace Porter had a unique story that led him to “see the elephant” after undergoing some tragic events of death from his fellow Union Calvary men, his wife, Irene, and George, the elephant. Clyde Hollenbach offered to sell the circus, Hollenbach’s Menagerie, to Porter after Hollenbach could not afford to maintain the circus anymore due to financial hardships. Porter then knew that he had to buy the circus off of Hollenbach. …show more content…

Porter walked by the elephant and Day stated, “George’s skin sagged from protruding bones and Porter stroked the knobbly bristled hide,” (17). The “protruding bones” that George resembles the appearance of Irene because Irene’s bones were inevitable to see as her condition began to grow worse and worse. The sick appearances of both George and Irene symbolize Porter’s unforgettable experiences because they were events that haunted Porter in which he did not fully recover from. Although such experiences existed, George’s “bristled hide” was alike Irene’s in the way that her and George tried to hide themselves from the reality of the truth, that they were dying. Porter then realized that George was Irene. They did not want anyone to help them, especially in Irene’s case in which she insisted Porter not to bring any more doctors to evaluate her. The circus was a mirrored image of both George and Irene; the circus was bound to not exist anymore because it became sick economically. Porter was pained by knowing that he could not help out the love of his life and the poor animal. He knew that if he could go back he would have done anything in his will to save both of them, but he knew that he was given the chance to amend his mistake and do what he should have done since the

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