Water For Elephants By Sara Gruen: An Analysis

In 2015 there was a ban on the use of wild animals in the circus in England. However, Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen takes place in a circus during the dirty thirties therefore; there has not yet been a ban for the use of wild animals. The poor economic conditions at the time everyone was going broke and few had jobs. Due to Jacob Jankowski receiving life changing information leaving him with absolutely nothing. Jacob then decides to run away and hop on a circus train going past him. This circus is run poorly with no laws to keep people and animals safe. One of the many themes in the novel is, life is not always easy, but hard work pays off in the end. This is evident due to the hard and unsatisfying lifestyle, improper care, and abuse

that the people and animals face.
All the characters in Water For Elephants go through hard and unsatisfying time to survive the circus lifestyle.

The circus is struggling with money due to the Depression causing people to not get paid, “For the first time in show history, there is no money for the performers” (Gruen 282). This makes it difficult to feed everyone sufficiently, including the animals. The animals would often be fed rotten food or other animals that have died at the circus due to illness. Along with not having money and insufficient amounts of food, they did dangerous things on a daily basis. For example while the train is moving, people would walk on the roof of the train to get to another car. This slowly becomes something they are used to, “Without further ado, he leans forward, catches ahold of something around the side of the stock car, and climbs nimbly to the roof” (60). By walking on the roof, Jacob and Marlena get to see each other during the night without August knowing. Therefore, all the hard work and unsatisfying lifestyles pay off for Jacob and

Marlena.
Most circuses did not treat anyone properly, making lives harder for the animals and people.

Due to the poor financial situation the circus is currently in, there is no veterinarian on board. The regular workers, with a lack of knowledge, were the vets for the animals before Jacob. When Jacob shows up everyone is excited to hear he has attended Cornell University, due to some of the animals being sick, like Marlenas horse. Along with the animals, the workers, and performers are unable to access a doctor easily due to lack of money. This was stated when Jacob said, “ I want to get him a doctor, but I'm flat broke and so is he” (183). Even though the doctors and vets are valuable they are not treated that way at all. For instance, when Jacob first got to the circus he was sleeping “on a crumpled horse blanket against the wall” (62), for the first few nights. The first night he slept on the blanket he woke up the next morning and scratched his “arms and neck raw”(62) due to the unsanitary conditions. Even if Jacob was going through tough, life threatening times, it all worked out in the end for him because he survived the great

depression.
While at the circus, many people and animals faced abuse. Rosie, the elephant, was often beat by August while bystanders stood outside the room and listened to the beating. After Rosie stole lemonade, “distraught listener could make out the hollow thud of the bull hook hitting flesh, again and again and again”(223). Similarly, August abused Jacob by making him feed the cats, which could have seriously hurt Jacob. Another form of abuse that is present is when August or Uncle Al redlights people for various reasons. Redlighting is when someone gets thrown off a moving train as a form of punishment, or because the circus does not need that person anymore. In the novel it does not matter what conditions or disabilities you have, you can still be redlighted if the bosses decide you should not be with the circus. For instance, Jacob tells Marlena, “half a dozen men got redlighted. Camel was supposed to be among them”(275). In conclusion, the main abuser in this novel was August, in the end he faced consequences for what he did to others. Rosie killed him with a stake that was supposed to hold her in place.
The novel Water For Elephants had a prominent theme, life is not always easy, but hard work will pay off in the end. The theme was presented through, the hard and unsatisfying lifestyle that left many people hopeless. Along with the poor lifestyle the novel had, there was lots of improper care toward the workers, for example not having someone to take care of them when ill. The last point that presents the theme is, the abuse that everyone went through on a daily basis. In the end Jacob, Marlena, and Rosie all ran away from the circus and created a new life together. How much would you go through to possibly achieve happiness in the end?