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.
I absolutely loved reading Water for Elephants; it is probably one of the best novels that I have read in my life time thus far. I would say that this novel is one for all ages but it contains some foul language and some content that’s more appropriate for a mature reader. One thing that I liked is that each chapter had a different photo from many different circuses. For example, one of the photos is an elephant, or the entertainers or pictures of the big circus tent (Gruen 238, 70, 48). Another thing that I utterly enjoyed about Gruen’s novel was her transitions; every few chapters she would flip- flop back and forth between twenty-three year old Jacob and ninety-three year old Jacob. Here’s an example of this, “I give up on rage, which at this point has become a formality, and make a mental note to get angry again in the morning. Then I let myself drift, because there’s really no fighting it. The train groans, straining against the increasing resistance of air breaks. After several minutes and a final, prolonged shriek, the great iron beast shudders to a stop and ...
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...you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but its decades before you admit it” (Gruen 5). Here Jacob is saying that people like to live in and think about their past ages and try to hold on to those instead of living in the present. People lose sight of what’s actually in front of them and usually waste their life way. Life passes to quickly; people need to just go after what they want so that they can live happily with a life filled with no regrets.
Works Cited
Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants: a novel. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.: Algonquin Books, 2006. Print.
Judd, Elizabeth. “Trunk Show.” The New York Times Book Review 4 June 2006: 35(L). Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
“Sara Gruen.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2014. Web 15 Mar. 2014. .
So far this book was a nice little surprise. Like previously stated, upon picking this book up one would think that the author is crazy for writing about the lifestyles of elephants. But when it is actually explored and read its written style and messages make for this book to be taken in very easily and fluently. This language used is at the perfect level, and the subject level is complex enough that the reader has to make connections themselves or else they will become confused almost guaranteed.
Each author has the same purpose in writing about the elephant studies and there are many similarities and differences in which the elephants behaved.
“A Doll House.” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl, and Peter Schakel. Third edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 850-908. Print.
Overall, there is a strong sense of confinement in both novels, The Help, and Water for Elephants. The characters are confined through laws, bounds, expectations and silence. The authors state to the reader that, in order for humans to grow they must be free, and not confined. Subsequently, confinement leads to pain and suffering.
Elephants'." Studies in Short Fiction. 17.1 (Winter 1980): 75-77. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 75-77. Literature Resource Center. Gale.
Showalter, Elaine. "Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book." Martin 33-55.
Chua, Amy. Battle hymn of the tiger mother . New York: Penguin Press, 2011. Print.
Showalter, Elaine. "Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book." Martin 33-55.
Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays. Ed. Sonia Orwell. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1950. 3-12.
We learned that she was crippled and that she couldn’t travel as fast as the rest of the herd. However, we saw that the elephants in Babyl’s group didn’t leave her behind; they waited for her.” The guide had explaoined that the elephants always waited for the elephant name Babyl, and they had been doing it for years. The guide explained how the group would walk for a while, then stop and look around to see where Babyl was. If Babyl was too far back, they would stop and wait. (Bekoff, 2007, p. 3). This shows the value of emotions that enhanced Babyl 's chance at survival. The group must of cared for Babyl, or they wouldn 't do what they were doing to halp take care of the elephant, if they had not, the elphant would have more than likely parished a long time ago, becoming prey and a food source for another animal.
The common name is the African Elephant, the scientific name is Loxodonta Africana, the phylum is Vertebrata, the class is Mammalia, the order is Proboscidea, and the family is Elephantidae. The Closest Relatives to the African Elephant are: the Asian Elephant, mammoths, primitive proboscidean (mastodons), sea cows, and hyraxes. Scientists believe that the African Elephant evolved from one of its closest relatives, the Sea Cow. The geographical location and range of the African elephant covers all of central and southern Africa. In Ethiopia there are isolated populations that exist around Lake Chad in Mali and Mauritania. Also in Kenya, Rhodesia, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Zaire, and in National parks located in South Africa, as well as several other countries. African Elephants, originally, were found in all of the Sub-Saharan African habitats except desert steppes. Elephants still occupy diverse habitats such as: temperate grassland, tropical savanna and grass lands, temperate forest and rainforest, tropical rainforest, tropical scrub forest, and tropical deciduous forest despite their drastic decline in numbers. However, their migratory patterns and habitat use have changed, due to the fact that they are restricted to protected areas. The elephant can exist in many types of environments but it prefers places that have many trees and bushes, which the elephant needs both for food and shade. They also like warm areas that have plenty of rainfall.
ROOM. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2010. Print.
I think that what the author was trying to imply in this passage was that in his personal experience, he has noticed that many people take many things for granted and that they don’t live their lives according to what they want and need to do. So much is wasted during one’s lifetime, and people just allow their lives to pass them by.
There are a lot of animals in the world but two massive creatures are the rambunctious elephant and the mysterious colossal squid.We know about both of them their are two books that give you information about these two creatures “Elephants on the Savannah” and “A Colossal Catch.” Two different books with quit some similarities.
It is often said that people change people, and that quote rings true throughout Bernard Pomerance’s play The Elephant Man. Following the life of John Merrick, The Elephant Man is about a man who suffers from severe physical deformities who is greatly influenced and greatly influences society. A significant figure in Merrick’s life, the one character who is influenced most and goes through the most profound and personal change is Dr. Frederick Treves, an altruistic doctor who opens his hospital doors to serve as Merrick's sanctuary. During Merrick’s stay, Treves’ approach towards him and towards life itself shifts from somewhat Victorian and conformist to individualistic.