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Analysis Of Water For Elephant

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: English Literature
Wordcount: 1428 words Published: 3rd May 2017

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The day to day struggling that Jacob faces is a true picture in which the older man is abandoned at a nursing facility by his family members. This is in direct opposite to the life that Jacob undergoes while at the Benzini. This is a theme of male discrimination in their older age where they are viewed as a nuisance to their society, and are not treated as human beings but as patients and which is a direct manifestation of the current world. At the age of ninety three, Jacob Jankowski still remembers the memories, most of which gender based and which he was subjected to. He remembers vividly as a young man how he was tossed by fate to a train that was rickety. He still remembers a world that was full of clowns and freaks, coupled with pain and wonders as well as passion and anger. After college he was ushered in a world that stares in discriminatory, that has irrational, narrow, rules, with complex life, and an equally complex death. To Jacob, the circus was a prove of the brutality and discrimination subjected to the male. He was actually there because he was simply not lucky, was penniless and orphaned. Before joining the “ship of fools” train he had no direction in life. Old McGuinty foolishly tells Jacob that he “used to carry water for the elephants,” (Gruen 46). Jacob sees this statement as an open lie and an insult to him. In deep memory of Rosie, Jacob fearlessly asks back, “Do you have any idea how much an elephant drinks?” (Gruen 47). This connects readers who see the discrimination and lack of respect that the old Jacob is subjected to and are likely to ask, Do you have an idea at how much an old man can remember and love? Jacob is the only character who is morally upright and in reward he is forced to spend most of the time broken, beaten, bleeding, hungover, concussed, bleeding and swollen. He is frustrated because in his old age he is trapped and discriminated upon. As a young college student with little world experience, Jacob is discriminated and ridiculed by his peers. But he later gradually gains respect after being promoted to be in charge of animal management. This in itself reveals how humanity is cunning and how Jacob is discriminated as a man and only gains recognition after the promotion. As an animal manager he meets several characters including Walter, who become his friend only after some time. Other characters he encounters are Barbara, Blackie and Earl who are known to “redlight” human being. “Redlighting” here means that they throw people off the train. He also meets Uncle Al who is also a manager. Question 2 The narration occurs during the Great Depression where every person in the circus was blessed to get any work at all. Marlena, is a star, who had fallen in love with a wrong man. The man was good-looking and he owned the circus and had a broad mean streak. Rosie was a female elephant, who was a great gray hope, and was the new act that was destined to save the circus. The major problem with Rosie was that she was very poor in following simple instructions. There was a strong relationship of trust and love that emerged from the three, and which was viewed as their single and only hope for survival. In the movie Water for Elephants, the main characters in it provide the movie audience a journey that is very memory to human beings. The major issue in understanding any story is that the characters act out to declaration and accomplishment issues of the needs of human beings that they make the audience attentive. If there is a lesson to be learned this engagement provides a means in which the issue will remain in memory of the audience for long. When the characters in a story are introduced, authors and writers have to suggest that character will leave to the expectations of the issues that arise from the story. Jacob is the main character in the. Readers are subjected to about three months of Jacob’s life when he was twenty three as well as a few days as a ninety three year old man. His character is lovable human being who shares anything he has with anyone around him as a young man, but in older years he keeps most of the time to himself (Jamie 2007). Marlena is his lover of life, a lady whom he met while in the circus. Jacob and Marlena initially fight against each other in their love, but fortunes in life bring them to love and cherish one another for ever and even have children. Uncle Al is oe of the circus leader, who is a self-serving, cunning who brutally slaps and beats the animals and anyone on site at will just because he has the powers and no one can stop him. August is the lead trainer, who is characterized with brutality and most of the time misuses the animals he is supposed to train which includes the new elephant Rosie and any person who works under him. On the other hand he is sometimes very charming. Jacob creates a more careful relationship with August but he is unable to control advances to his wife Marlena. The actions of the characters are symbolic but a true reflection of the current world happenings. The oppressions that Jacob was subjected to is very much similar to the current affair happenings in the work place. The love affair between him and he wife of his boss rings bells and can be regarded as any wishful writing. The character of August was full of brutality and that of Uncle Al equally cunning and a very poor person to relate with. Question 3 The character most identified with is Jacob. The is made possible because the nation itself is by Jacob and he speaks of his own experiences as a vet doctor and the entire experiences, good and bad including the love affairs he passed through. There is more drama as he narrates about his experiences at the nursing home which gives a picture on how he old people are mistreated in such homes. There are two experiences from the book which are equally interesting. One is the brutality subjected to the animals and human beings including Jacob by August and Uncle Al as well the old age days of Jacob in a nursing home, who is regarded as a patient and not as a human being. Another episode is the falling in love of Jacob with his wife’s boss as an animal vet. He becomes close with a guided relationship with August and develops a close love relationship with his wife Marlena, who is the most outgoing character. Despite her marriage to August, Marlene finds favor in another man Jacob whom together they get a child. All of this is coupled with Jacob’s gradually growing relationship to Rosie a very complex elephant. It leaves everyone wondering what will happen if August discovers this illicit relationship and leaves everyone reading more to know what happened at the end. There were no characters in Water for Elephants that was seemed authentic in my personal experience.

 

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