Water For Elephants Theme Essay

304 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Water for elephants analysis

In Sara Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants, the theme of love being a driving force in the characters’ decision making is displayed through the use of characterization and conflict throughout the novel. Jacob’s love for Marlena causes him to make unexpected and often foolish decisions. When Jacob suddenly kissed Marlena, her reaction caused him to realize “‘[he] shouldn’t have done that,’” (Gruen, 2006, p. 153). Jacob was unable to conceal his love for Marlena, which, in turn, caused him to suddenly kiss her. Jacob’s character is extremely love driven, which is demonstrated by his romantic outbursts. Without thinking of the results, Jacob decided to keep Rosie because of his love for her. When Jacob told Marlena they were keeping Rosie, his reasoning was “‘I love that bull. …show more content…

319). When faced with the thought of losing Rosie, Jacob’s immense love for her caused him to impulsively keep her. Similarly to the situation with Marlena, Jacob’s love-driven character made extremely impulsive decisions, without thinking of consequences. Jacob didn’t think of what would happen to Rosie or his family when he accepted the deal, which could have caused an even greater conflict. The theme of love driving the characters’ decisions is also portrayed by Jacob’s love for the circus. Sara Gruen (2006) ends the novel with elderly Jacob running away with the circus because “for this old man, this is home,” (p.331). Despite his elderly age, Jacob spontaneously decided to run away with the circus yet again. Jacob’s love for the setting of the circus, which he referred to as his beloved home, influenced his unpredictable decision to run away. In the novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, love is a powerful force that determines the characters’ actions, which is demonstrated through the use of characterization and

Show More
Related

  • Theme Of Courage In The Help And Water For Elephants

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities […] because it is the quality that guarantees all others” (Winston Churchill). This quote attests to the importance of the courage portrayed in The Help and Water for Elephants and emphasizes why courage is a defining trait of the characters. In both novels, the characters are confined and put through pain and suffering but in the end demonstrate tremendous amounts of courage in order to overcome their oppression. In The Help, the coloured help are confined to living life in an era full of racism, they are put through pain and suffering by the way they are treated by their employers and the members of their community. The characters demonstrate

    Read More

  • Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz covers the issue of Love and Violence thoroughly throughout the book, and shows how anger and love influence the impulsive and reckless decisions the characters made. Searching for Zion, by Emily Raboteau on the other hand shows that love comes in different forms and may be easily misunderstood. Abelard, Belicia, Lola, and Emily show love can be a devastating force if not handled carefully and, could be very dangerous. As others commonly have, Oscar confuses passion or lust with love, which in many ways can be critical when conveyed in violence. Similarly, Emily doesn’t fully understand the love that she shares with her father and it leads her to dangerous encounters.

    Read More

  • Loyalty In Water For Elephants, By Sara Gruen

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Loyalty can be perceived in many different ways. Loyalty may be shown by an individual as repayment, sympathy, or it may just be a part of one’s character and personality. Ultimately, loyalty is an act of faithfulness, reliability, and commitment. The opposite, disloyalty, is an act of dishonesty. In the novel: “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen, the main character, Jacob Jankowski, portrays elements of, both, loyalty and disloyalty. Jacob is deceiving and disloyal in many aspects of this novel; however, once he learns lessons of loyalty from other characters, he embraces loyalty in return – it becomes evident that Jacob’s actions were acts of repayment towards his peers.

    Read More

  • The Glass Menagerie And Steel Magnolias Analysis

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Much like Lorraine Hansberry, Madeleine L’Engle believes that “the growth of love is not a straight line, but a series of hills and valleys.” Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Glass Menagerie, and Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias use the idea that even through struggles their characters show that love always endures. Although loving someone, who is not particularly loveable, is one of the most difficult parts of being human, it is possible by remembering that addictions can be reversed, blood is forever, and a ring is more than just an object.

    Read More

  • Water for Elephants

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Water for Elephants, the story is told through Jacob Jankowski at two different parts in his life: twenty-three year old Jacob who is out there exploring the world and, ninety-three year old Jacob who feels like he is wasting away his life in a nursing home. Water for Elephants is Gruen’s third book, it became one of the New York Times best sellers, it’s also available in forty-four different languages and it’s now a motion picture (Sara Gruen). Throughout the novel the reader is brought through both Jacob’s happy memories and ones that he wishes he could forget which shows its impact on the reader, a sense of catharsis and its social significance.

    Read More

  • Love And Passion In Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate

    502 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love and passion are themes that are brought up regularly in Laura Esquivel’s novel Like Water for Chocolate. These two themes are most often seen represented in the couples within the book. When these themes are seen, however, they are seen as separate with love and passion never mingling. The romances in the book, especially Tita’s, are always seen as having either love or passion, but never passion in a love-filled relationship or vice versa. To have both love and passion in a relationship is seen as impossible until Gertrudis arrives back on the scene after she ran away. Gertrudis’s relationship with Juan is the seamless mix of passion and love, the right amount of desire and tenderness that all other characters seem to have a severe lack

    Read More

  • Water For Elephants Compare And Contrast Essay

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    One main similarity between the movie and novel, “Water for Elephants” is the conflict between August (one of the main protagonists) and three other main characters: Rosie the elephant, Marlena (August’s wife), and Jacob. In the novel, as soon as Jacob meets Marlena, he already knows that her relationship with August is violent. Even though her domestic abuse becomes out of control, Marlena keeps it a secret from Jacob and everyone else in the circus because she feels she feels like it is a sensitive subject to talk about. When Marlena and Jacob plan to throw a surprise get together for August, August intervenes thinking they are planning a “postcoital celebration” instead (Gruen, 244). After August catches them together, they yell, “Surprise!” to which August replies, “A surprise, yes...Or so you think” and then he “shoves Marlena so violently she crashes back onto the

    Read More

  • True Love In Edith Hamilton's Mythology

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.

    Read More

  • Love in The Lady with the Dog and Hills like White Elephants

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chekhov’s portrayal of love is as an emotion that solidifies itself only if the precise person is encountered. However, Chekhov takes his idea even further through his characters Dmitri and Anna, by stating through them, that love may be discovered, even after marrying the “incorrect person.” This fact is made clear when Chekhov writes “I don't know what he does there, what his work is, but I know he is a flunkey! I was twenty when I was married to him” through the character Anna. Hemingway on the other hand, instead of giving a view on what love is, his perspective is based on situation that may be mistaken as love. Both of Hemingway’s characters in Hills like White Elephants; Jig and The American, are reluctant to reveal the reality o...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Lady With The Dog And Hills Like White Elephants

    1739 Words  | 4 Pages

    The principal characters from the short stories, ‘’The Lady with the Dog’’ by Chekhov, and ‘’Hills like White Elephants’’ by Ernest Hemingway are dishonest with the one they love and with themselves, they hide their real feelings about the person they are with, they are living an untruthful relationship, and as a couple they lie to each other. In ‘’The Lady with The Dog’’, Dmitri Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna, they are both unhappily married to other characters, and after a while they engage in an affair, hiding their feeling to each other, just because they do not want to break up their marriages, they do not want more responsibility of what they have with each other. The same matter happens in the ‘’Hills Like White Elephants’’, The American

    Read More

  • The Emotional Journey in Wide Sargasso Sea

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    The many emotions of desire, lust, trust, and happiness are portrayed, but also hate, fear, and jealousy. It is a masterpiece of love and betrayal; a world of passion and sensuality; and an unforgettable story of sexual obsession.

    Read More

  • 'I Fell In Love, Or My Hormones Awakened'

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    Judith Ortiz Cofer and Ernest Hemingway also wrote about love; they wrote stories of lovers in certain situations. Cofer describes her fascination with a boy in "I Fell In Love, Or My Hormones Awakened". Hemingway describes a couple’s vacation in "Cat In the Rain". These stories actually connect with the essay on the topic of love. Characters in these two stories are good models for the lovers

    Read More

  • Effects of Love in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    A life changing journey is taken as Jean Valjean, Cosette and Marius feel the emotion of love and learn to cope with its effects. Each character soon realizes that the effects of love are very powerful. Happiness, self-confidence, and depression are all found during the enduring journey. Studies have proven that, “...without love we die...” (B). Jean Valjean, Cosette, and Marius realize that they can not survive without experiencing the profound effects of love.

    Read More

  • Love in The Beauty and the Beast and Shrek

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Love was the major theme for Beauty and the Beast. The love for a father, a beast/ man, and for one’s self. Papa, an inventor that does not yet have a following, took a wrong turn and came upon a ca...

    Read More

  • Ashurt's Two Loves

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Love can bring both joy and pain to human", may that be the message which John Galsworthy wanted to send us- the readers. By using the technique of narrative skillfully, John Galsworthy explored thoroughly the psychology of the characters. Under his pen, appeared lines writing about the wildly passionate love Ashurt had towards Megan, the new sensation internalizing this man when he met Stella and the inner conflict that Ashurt had to experience. When I read this story, I found my own image sometimes like Ashurt, sometimes like Megan, and sometimes like Stella. That is the talent of this Nobel winner!

    Read More

More about Water For Elephants Theme Essay

Open Document