Water for ElephantsBy Sara Gruen About the Book: Water for Elephants was written by Sara Gruen and published on May 26, 2006. The book is written as a series of memories of 93-year-old Jacob Jankowski who lives in a nursing home. The book centers around Jacob’s memories back from when he was 23 and joined a circus during the Great Depression. It is on this circus that he meets the abusive equestrian director, August, and falls in love with August’s wife, Marlena. Jacob struggles to hide his emotions about the way August treats the animals as well as his love for Marlena, both of which will end up getting him into trouble About the Author: Sara Gruen moved to the US from Canada for a writing job. Two years later, she was laid off and began to write her own novels. Her first two books, Riding Lessons (2004) and Flying Changes (2005) centered around horses and showed her deep love for animals. Riding Lessons is also regarded as a USA Today Bestseller. Water for Elephants (2006) became an instant New York Times #1 Bestseller and is available in 44 different languages for millions of readers to enjoy worldwide. Over 3 million copies have been sold, and in 2008 it was made into a movie, starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon. Her most recent book, Ape House (2010) is also regarded as a success. Overall, Sara Gruen is regarded as a universal success, and she has won many awards for her writing, including the 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year award, and many more. Although all of her novels are regarded as successes, especially Water for Elephants, there are a few critics out there who believe that Gruen's writing style is anticlimactic and much too dramatic. However, the success of her novels do not represent these few negative reviews that she has recieved.
Characters and Conflict: Water for Elephants centers around the memories of Jacob Jankowski back from when he was twenty-three. When his parents are killed in a car crash, he runs away from vet school just before taking his finals and stumbles upon the train to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He then joins the struggling circus and is hired by the circus headmaster, Uncle Al, to work as the shows veterinarian. It is here that he meets August, the abusive animal trainer and equestrian director, and falls in love with his beautiful wife, Marlena, who is the star of the equestrian act. When the circus purchases Rosie, the seemingly un-trainable elephant, Jacob becomes attatched to her and fears she may be the circuses last hope for survival. August proves to be a very violent man, and Jacob cannot stand the way he treats both the animals and Marlena, and his love for Marlena will end up getting him into big trouble.
Theme: In Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen demonstrates both the pros and cons of rash decision making through the actions of Jacob; not only do his choices throw him into the dangerous whirlwind that is life on the circus, but they also lead to him discovering love and friendship in some of the delicate souls working in this rough depression-era industry.
Review: Water for Elephants, written by Sara Gruen, is written as a series of memories and flashbacks of 93-year-old Jacob Jankowski as he reminisces on his time at the circus during the Great Depression in his early twenties. After a series of awful events that happen to him, he stumbles upon the train to the Benzini Brothers' Most Spectacular Show on Earth, and is thrown into the chaos that is this struggling show. It is here that Jacob meets August, the highly abusive equestrian director and his lovely wife Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love with. This book has it all: romance, action, suspense, and a little bit of mystery. It can really make you feel like you are in a different time period, and can draw strong emotions from the reader. I couldn’t put it down! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes animals and/or romance and is looking for a simply fantastic read.
Style Analysis: In Water for Elephents, author Sara Gruen uses the stylistic elements such as an interesting point of view, order of chronology, and allusion in order to give her novel unique flare. Interesting Point of View:
Water for Elephants is told as a series of memories from the point of view of 92-year-old Jacob Jankowski. Throughout the novel, Jacob's perspective switches back and forth between memories and dreams about his time in the circus in the 1930's and his current state in the nursing home that he lives
"I'm blubbering like the ancient fool I am, that's what. I guess i was asleep. I could have sworn that just a few seconds ago I was twenty-three, and now here I am in this wretched, desiccated body" (Gruen 64).
" Jacob Jankowski, a retired veterinarian living out his days in an assisted-living facility, drifts in and out of his memories" ("Water for Elephants," Kirkus Reviews).
"Soon a love triangle develops between August, August's wife Marlena, and Jacob, who recalls the experience more than 70 years later in a nursing home" ("Water for Elephants," Bookmarks).
Order of Chronology:
Gruen's novel begins with a prologue depicting the action in the climax of the story, but the reader knows not who the characters are and who commits the crime, as only pronouns are used during the description of the crime, and the reader is not yet familiar with the characters that are mentioned. The novel is then written as a series of memories, as described before, working up to the same climaz depicted in the prologue.
"She lifted the stake high in the air and brought it down, splitting his head like a watermelon. His pate opened, his eyes grew wide, and his mouth froze in an O. He fell to his knees and then toppled forward into the straw...So long ago, so long, but it still haunts me" (Gruen 4).
"'Water for Elephants begins violently and then veers into weirder terrain" (Judd).
Allusion:
In Water for Elephants, Gruen often alludes to the problems of the Great Depression, and Jacob's memories are from the time period in which this infamous historical event occured.
"The following morning is payday, and the employees of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth line up in front of the red ticket wagon. The working men are in foul humor - they know which way the wind is blowing... for the first time in the show's history, there is no money for preformers. Only the bosses are getting paid" (Gruen 282).
"The troupe crisscrosses the contry cannibalizing acts that have gone bankrupt in the Depression-era economy" (Judd).
"Gruen has done her research on the history of the period" ("Water for Elephants," Bookmarks).
Water for Elephants Official Movie Trailer:Click Here if link below is not working
Works Cited Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. North Carolina: Algonquin, 2006. Print. Judd, Elizabeth. “Trunk Show.” Rev. of Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. The New York Times Book Review (June 4, 2006):35. Literature Resource Center. 4 June 2008. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com>. “Water for Elephants.” Rev. of Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Bookmarks (September-October 2006): 40. Literature Resource Center. September-October 2008. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com>. “Water for Elephants.” Rev. of Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus, 15 Mar. 2006. Web. 17 May 2012. < http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sara-gruen/water-for-elephants/#review>.
About the Book:
Water for Elephants was written by Sara Gruen and published on May 26, 2006. The book is written as a series of memories of 93-year-old Jacob Jankowski who lives in a nursing home. The book centers around Jacob’s memories back from when he was 23 and joined a circus during the Great Depression. It is on this circus that he meets the abusive equestrian director, August, and falls in love with August’s wife, Marlena. Jacob struggles to hide his emotions about the way August treats the animals as well as his love for Marlena, both of which will end up getting him into trouble
About the Author:
Although all of her novels are regarded as successes, especially Water for Elephants, there are a few critics out there who believe that Gruen's writing style is anticlimactic and much too dramatic. However, the success of her novels do not represent these few negative reviews that she has recieved.
Characters and Conflict:
Water for Elephants centers around the memories of Jacob Jankowski back from when he was twenty-three.
When his parents are killed in a car crash, he runs away from vet school just before taking his finals and stumbles
upon the train to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. He then joins the struggling circus and is
hired by the circus headmaster, Uncle Al, to work as the shows veterinarian. It is here that he meets August, the
abusive animal trainer and equestrian director, and falls in love with his beautiful wife, Marlena, who is the star of
the equestrian act. When the circus purchases Rosie, the seemingly un-trainable elephant, Jacob becomes attatched to her and fears she may be the circuses last hope for survival. August proves to be a very violent man, and Jacob cannot stand the way he treats both the animals and Marlena, and his love for Marlena will end up getting him into big trouble.
Theme:
In Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen demonstrates both the pros and cons of rash decision making through the actions of Jacob; not only do his choices throw him into the dangerous whirlwind that is life on the circus, but they also lead to him discovering love and friendship in some of the delicate souls working in this rough depression-era industry.
Review:
Water for Elephants, written by Sara Gruen, is written as a series of memories and flashbacks of 93-year-old Jacob Jankowski as he reminisces on his time at the circus during the Great Depression in his early twenties. After a series of awful events that happen to him, he stumbles upon the train to the Benzini Brothers' Most Spectacular Show on Earth, and is thrown into the chaos that is this struggling show. It is here that Jacob meets August, the highly abusive equestrian director and his lovely wife Marlena, with whom Jacob falls in love with. This book has it all: romance, action, suspense, and a little bit of mystery. It can really make you feel like you are in a different time period, and can draw strong emotions from the reader. I couldn’t put it down! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes animals and/or romance and is looking for a simply fantastic read.
Style Analysis:
In Water for Elephents, author Sara Gruen uses the stylistic elements such as an interesting point of view, order of chronology, and allusion in order to give her novel unique flare.
Interesting Point of View:
Order of Chronology:
- Gruen's novel begins with a prologue depicting the action in the climax of the story, but the reader knows not who the characters are and who commits the crime, as only pronouns are used during the description of the crime, and the reader is not yet familiar with the characters that are mentioned. The novel is then written as a series of memories, as described before, working up to the same climaz depicted in the prologue.
- "She lifted the stake high in the air and brought it down, splitting his head like a watermelon. His pate opened, his eyes grew wide, and his mouth froze in an O. He fell to his knees and then toppled forward into the straw...So long ago, so long, but it still haunts me" (Gruen 4).
- "'Water for Elephants begins violently and then veers into weirder terrain" (Judd).
Allusion:Water for Elephants Official Movie Trailer:Click Here if link below is not working
Works Cited
Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. North Carolina: Algonquin, 2006. Print.
Judd, Elizabeth. “Trunk Show.” Rev. of Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. The New York Times Book Review (June 4, 2006):35. Literature Resource Center. 4 June 2008. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com>.
“Water for Elephants.” Rev. of Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Bookmarks (September-October 2006): 40. Literature Resource Center. September-October 2008. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com>.
“Water for Elephants.” Rev. of Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus, 15 Mar. 2006. Web. 17 May 2012. < http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sara-gruen/water-for-elephants/#review>.