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Summary Of Water For Elephants By Sara Gruen

908 Words4 Pages

“Water for Elephants” a story by Sara Gruen, about a man named Jacob telling his life story. The themes of this story are old age, love, and the two literary devices that reveal these themes include character and setting. The narrator Jacob Jankowski is a really old man that can barely walk. He’s stuck in a nursing home and talks about his life way back in the 1930s when many events occurred at a circus. The character of Jacob and the setting in the past and his love for a women named Marlena and her pet elephant Rosie illustrate the themes of old age and love. One theme of this story like old age refers that during most of the story Jacob is a old man in a nursing home, and a lot of his desires are limited. “He thinks about fresh fruit with …show more content…

The Benzini Brothers' Circus that was opened back in the 1930s. Back then the circus was a bit different to the time now. For example, “I peer inside. The tent is enormous, as tall as the sky and supported by long, straight poles jutting at various angles. The canvas is taut and nearly translucent – sunlight filters through the material and seams, illuminating the largest candy stand of all. It's smack in the center of the menagerie, under rays of glorious light, surrounded by banners advertising sarsaparilla, Cracker Jack, and frozen custard.” (Jacob 113) Jacob loves the circus and thinks it’s a place of heightened, exaggerated …show more content…

For example, Jacob is in love and obsessed with Marlena and her pet elephant. Marlena is a beautiful girl that ran away from home during her teenage years. Unfortunately, she married a man that beats her up and is an animal abuser this man is known as August. During the story August is the one who abuses Rosie the elephant for no reason. To continue, Jacob is really in love with Marlena mostly because she reminds him of an old crush. "She looks so much like Catherine I catch my breath – the plane of her face, the cut of her hair, the slim thighs I've always imagined were under Catherine's staid skirts. […] When I turn back, the woman is looking at me. Her brow furrows, as though in recognition. […] After a few seconds she steals another glance" (Jacob 115-116). Both Marlena and Jacob have a love affair, for example they manage to have sex and Jacob finds out that Marlena actually loves him too. Later on she finally leaves that terrible man August just to protect herself from afflicting any more pain and suffering. Jacob also shows love to Rosie the elephant, for example "I hate that I've let them [Marlena and Rosie] both down" (Jacob 154) Also, Jacob trains Rosie the elephant, and respects both Marlena and Rosie more than

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