Water for Elephants Essay

Jacob Jankowski, the novel's protagonist, comes from an upper class background and in an ironic twist of fate, is repositioned to lower class status due to an unfortunate accident. The novel is told in flashback by Jacob. He reminisces on the exciting and uncertain period he spent with the Benzini Brothers circus, which he joined during the Great Depression. The memories start when Jacob is twenty three years old and studying for his finals as a veterinary student. Jacob’s father was a veterinarian also and Jacob planned to join his practice. Unfortunately, Jacob learns that his parents have been killed in a car accident, leaving him penniless.

He finds out that his father was greatly in debt because he had been treating animals without pay as well as mortgaging the family home to provide Jacob with an Ivy League education. Jacob goes through a breakdown and is forced to drop out of Cornell University just shy of graduation. He jumps on a train only to learn that it is a circus train. When the owner of the circus, Uncle Al, learns of his training as a vet, Jacob is hired to care for a menagerie of exotic circus animals. The novel chronicles Jacob’s experiences with the circus as he learns the hierarchy of circus workers and performers, and gains an understanding of the injustices of circus life while fighting to maintain his own moral identity. He falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers. This romance is complicated by Marlena's husband, August, the abusive animal trainer who beats both his wife and the animals Jacob takes care of. August is suspicious of their relationship and beats Marlena and Jacob. Soon after, Marlena leaves August. This is the pivotal event which leads to the ultimate downfall of the circus. Toward the end, several workers who had been thrown off the train previously, come back and release the animals causing a stampede during the performance. Amidst the panic and chaos, August is murdered. As a result of all of this taking place during a circus performance, the circus goes out of business. Marlena and Jacob, along with several circus animals, leave and begin their new life together. The story resolves itself with a violent but happy and optimistic ending.

The entire circus is a metaphor that describes the uneasy and often violent relationship between the ruling class and the poor lower class within society. The circus is a microcosm and represents the larger society's economic hardship and class war, portraying it on a personal level. The stampede of animals in the prologue paints a powerful picture of rebellion and revolution as the under class overthrows the sadistic and oppressive ruling class within the hierarchy of the circus. Jacob represents John Q Public, the blue collar working man in the throes of economic oppression. Uncle Al and August represent the upper class which abuses and exploits the working class. Locked within this circus's strict class system was a deep anger and resentment at injustice. The turmoil gathered steam until a backlash was unleashed and it manifested itself as pandemonium and violence. We don't have to go back to the time of the great depression to witness tension between the rich and the poor. In recent times, we have seen many riots in lower class and inner city neighborhoods. Rioting, robbing, looting, and violence are common methods of rebelling against the upper class and continue to plague our society in modern times.

The animals and the lowest class workers were pushed beyond the point of tolerance and resorted to murder and mayhem to bring down the hierarchy and the well-defined class structure of the circus. The whole circus system paralleled the division between the privileged and the destitute during the great depression and helps explain much of the unrest of the thirties as well as how movements like socialism and communism gained much more appeal during the 1930's than at any other time in our nation's history. I thought the novel portrayed these elements of the era in a very original and satirical fashion. The circus was structured in terms of economics, who got paid and when and how much. It functioned like a government, certain people made decisions, others couldn't. Certain people had a voice in those decisions, others didn't. One side had the power, the other side was expendable. In the end, morality and virtue prevail over greed and power, and that is the true message behind this story.