Water for Elephants Summary. The owner is curious about it since in 1931 there was the most famous disaster in history of circuses in the Benzini Circus and asks Jacob to tell what happened. Water for Elephants has two plots going on, both starring the same main character, Jacob. The first major conflict for the character Jacob catapults him into a new life and thus creates the rest of the story.

Jacob would be Rosie's trainer, and Marlena Rosenbluth, the circus' headlining horse trick rider and August's young wife, would be the performer with Rosie. The circus is shut down and shortly afterwards, Uncle Al's corpse is found with a makeshift garrote around his neck. Jacob finds himself sharing living quarters with a dwarf named Walter, whom the Circus call Kiko, and Walter's dog, Queenie. During his final exams, his parents die in a car accident. These are the main characters, except for Rosie. He diagnoses a lame horse, and August, the mercurial owner, hires him as a vet. - early 2010s. Water for Elephants is a story about an elderly man, Jacob, who recalls an adventure in his younger years. As he stumbles through the next weeks in a daze, numbed not only by the cold winter but also by no longer having any family or home, he sees a train chug by in the night. Jacob started out doing the lowest of the menial work, but graduated to become the circus' vet, based on August's assumption that Jacob graduated. | Jacob gets closer to Marlena and soon he discovers that she is also in love with him, but she fears August. Jacob leaves his town and jumps in a train in movement without destination to seek a job. There are several conflicts in Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. Later, several red-lighted circus workers return to release the animals, causing a stampede during a performance. His body is trampled in the stampede with only Jacob witnessing what happened. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen depicts a number of themes discussed below:  Set in the 1930s, a former veterinary student takes a job in a travelling circus and falls in love with the ringmaster's wife. When an old man is found wandering in the parking area of the Circus Vargas, his owner invites him to come to his office to call the Green Haven nursing home to take him back home. It helps to look at the facts surrounding the situation, and your own personal feelings in regards to the moral implications involved... What is the theme of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen?

Water for Elephants is proof that author Sara Gruen understands storytelling techniques. Rosie is the one elephant in the circus, a wise old beast that only understands Polish. To sell tickets, he buys an elephant, tells Jake to train it and his young wife Marlena to ride it. August, who was also the head animal trainer, treated people the way he trained his animals, with fear, intimidation and when need be violence and sometimes even death. Jacob must... What does "red-lighted" mean in Water for Elephants? When Jacob Jankowski, parents dead and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town.

The train is moving toward some unknown destination, and Jacob needs a change. He wants his rag-tag circus to be as spectacular as the Ringling Brothers, but he is going at it in all the wrong ways. Sadly Jacob realizes that nobody is coming for him after all, so he slips our of the nursing home himself and makes his way to the circus that has set up next to the home. He receives the devastating news that his parents have been killed in a car accident.

"Red-lighted" means that if a circus worker falls ill or lame he can be hurled from the train in the middle of the night and left for dead. In 1931, during the Great Depression, the Polish American Jacob lives with his beloved parents in a small ranch and studies veterinary in the Cornell University. Events lead him to joining the circus as their vet, working under their unstable boss August whose violent tendencies give everyone reason to be cautious around him, including his beautiful and quiet wife Marlena, whom August is very possessive of and who Jacob finds himself soon falling in love with. this section. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted circus owner. However when he chooses to August can also be gregarious, generous and affable. One night Jacob climbs the train from car to car whilst the train is moving, jumping to August's room whilst carrying a knife between his teeth. But she is not smart enough to... Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Water for Elephants study guide and get instant access to the following: You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and 300,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Marlena and Jacob leave, taking many circus animals with them, including Rosie, Queenie and Marlena's horses. The Question and Answer section for Water for Elephants is a great Meanwhile Jacob meets August's wife and lead attraction Marlena, he immediately falls in love with her. Taglines After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Synopsis He's Jake: when his parents die before he finishes veterinary studies, he hobos his way toward Albany, falling in with a circus. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. 1.

She wrote the book as part of National Novel Writing Month. With this stroke of bad luck, Jacob has his planned future suddenly snatched away. Every few chapters, the narrative switches from one Jacob to the other. Both Jacob and Marlena formed a bond with Rosie, in large part because of August's ill treatment of her. Through many extreme ups and even more and severely extreme downs, Jacob became a trusted part of August's circus family. In "Water for Elephants" should Marlena have stayed with August? When he is a couple days short of gaining his degree in veterinary science from Cornell University, Jacob learns that his mother and father have been killed in an automobile accident. will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. Regardless, August was happy to have him in the position, as Benzini Bros.'s main rival, Ringling Bros., had no such position on staff. The circus world that Jacob has just entered is filled with beguiling characters, not all of them attractive in the same way. The old man tells his name, Jacob Jankowski, and explains that he worked in the Benzini Bros. Charlie agrees and Jacob believes in his heart that he has finally come home. Jacob develops a guarded relationship with August but falls in love with August's wife Marlena. Parents Guide, FILMS AND MOVIES SEEN 2011 (18-19 y.o.)

Synopsis When Jacob Jankowski, parents dead and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. August acquired an aged elephant named Rosie in order for the circus to have a star attraction, which he hoped would get him out of his then financial hole. August is in debt, throwing employees from the train in the dead of night. Not affiliated with Harvard College. A few days later, Jacob discovers that August has tried to see Marlena so he visits her at the hotel and comforts her. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. August and his bodyguard Blackie, throw workers that complain off the train in movement to get rid of them.

August, the Equestrian Director, is a brutal man who mistreats the people around him and also mistreats the animals in his care, especially Rosie, the new elephant. August grows suspicious of their relationship and beats both his wife and Jacob. © 2020 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hitting the road with no idea where he would end up, he stumbled across Benzini Bros. by accident, it being owned and operated at that time by August Rosenbluth. What he is soon to discover is that he has climbed aboard a circus train. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. He tells the circus manager about his time in 1931 with the doomed Benzini Circus. Because of a sudden change to his family and financial circumstance, Jacob, then twenty-three, was forced to give up everything he knew, including his home, his almost completed Cornell education in veterinary science, and what he had mapped out as his future. "Water for Elephants Summary". Just before graduation he leaves Cornell jumping on a train in the middle of the night. Jacob lives in a nursing home where every moment of his life is controlled by the staff, and he is told what to eat, what to do and how his day will be spent. This is one of the ways that Uncle Al intimidates his... How does Water for Elephants connect with real life? Fearing that Camel will be thrown off a moving train, a punishment known as "red-lighting", Jacob hides him in his own quarters. He meets the manager of the circus, a kindly man called Charlie, and begs to be allowed to stay with the circus selling tickets. Circus in 1931. Uncle Al surrounds himself with thugs who will do anything he asks, including murder. The answer to this is purely a matter of opinion on your part. The story in this novel is told as a series of memories by a ninety-three year old man called Jacob Jankowski. Jacob learns that he is homeless and without any money since his parents used their house to get a loan for his studies. Their romantic triangle would not only threaten Jacob and Marlena's lives, but also the livelihood of the circus. Read the Study Guide for Water for Elephants…, View Wikipedia Entries for Water for Elephants…. Water for Elephants Summary These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. A few years before Jacob was put into the nursing home Marlena passed away. Soon he finds that this is the Benzini Brothers Circus train and he finds a job cleaning the animals' excrement from the wagons. First, there is Alan J. Bunkel, referred to as Uncle Al, the owner of the circus. Although Jacob was immediately attracted to Marlena on first sight, they fell in love through their work together on the act with Rosie, but also had growing disdain for August and his violent ways. When his memories begin, we are introduced to twenty three year old Jacob, a Polish American preparing for his finals at Cornell University where he is studying veterinary medicine.

Love: In the story, love is shown among the characters themselves. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating

But what's more, love also exists between humans... What are the main conflicts in Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants? We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Jacob learns that his parents' home was mortgages to the hilt to pay for his expensive Ivy League education; he will not inherit the home and this precipitates a breakdown. Marlena returns to the circus to perform and continues to meet with Jacob in secret. Jacob realizes that Walter and Camel have been red lighted, as he would have been if he had been in his car as expected. Marlena leaves August and stays in a hotel whenever she is not performing with the circus. And the doomed circus? During his time there, he fell in love with the... eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. While August's temper threatens the elephant, Marlena and Jake find a mutual attraction.

Cornwall, Claire, et al.

Plot Keywords | His intention is to kill August but backs out and returns to his car, leaving the knife on August's pillow. She is smart enough to pull up the stake that holds her in place, stick her trunk into the big container of lemonade when no one is looking, then return with her stake and pound it back into the ground. GradeSaver, 2 November 2018 Web.

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