Water for Elephants - Essay Example

There are few novels that truly immerse a person in the environment that the story is set in. Sarah Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants is one of these novels as it takes a close look at circus life during the Great Depression. The reader is pulled into a world that is both beautiful and horrific at the same time and from this world, the reader is able to recognize many universal themes that the author has injected into the overall story. Perhaps one of the biggest themes in this novel is powerlessness and by the end of the novel, only a few of the characters are able to regain the power that they have lost. Throughout the novel, each of the characters experiences an incredible amount of powerlessness. For Jacob, the main character, he is introduced as a man who is living in a nursing home facility. Often times, those that live within these facilities are rather powerless as they have little control over their lives. At one point in the novel, Jacob is trying to get a look at the circus outside the window of his nursing home and his heart starts to bother him: ““I’m fine.” I say, coughing and pounding my chest…I hear the squeak-squeak-squeak of rubber soles, and moment later I’m engulfed by nurses”(Gruen, 7). Throughout the novel, the reader sees many more examples of Jacob’s powerlessness. At the beginning of the story, Jacob loses his parents in a car accident and due to the Great Depression, everything his family has is being repossessed by the bank. At this point, he is so powerless that he experiences something similar to a panic attack in school and decides to quit: “I stare at these faces without features—these blank ovals with hair—looking from one to the next with increasing desperation…I’m gasping for breath”(Gruen, 22). In some respects, it could be argued that by taking his destiny into his own hands and joining the Benzini Brother’s Circus, Jacob is regaining some of this lost power; however, once he has joined the circus, he becomes powerless again as he falls in love with Marlena, a performer, who is married to the abusive animal trainer, August. He can do little about his love for her because of Marlena’s relationship and because of August’s overbearing nature. However, for a significant portion of the story, Jacob also feels powerless because he feels like he owes something to August for giving him a job, so Jacob doesn’t seem to think he can really go against the man which adds to these feelings of powerlessness. Jacob sums up his powerlessness at one point: “I hate him. I hate that I’m beholden to him I hate that I’m in love with his wife and something damned close to that with the elephant. And most of all, I hate that I’ve let them both down”(Gruen, 171). Ultimately, Jacob is able to regain some of his power by the end of the story when he returns to the circus to save Marlena even though he knows it could cost him his life. Additionally, when he takes charge and makes sure that he is able to keep Rosie with him and take care of her, he has also taken some of his power back. Although living in the nursing home has left Jacob somewhat powerless again, he is once more able to regain some of this lost power in the end of the story when Charlie allows Jacob to come along with the circus at the age of 93: “So what if I’m ninety-three? So what if I’m ancient and cranky and my body’s a wreck? If they’re willing to accept me and my guilty conscience, why the hell shouldn’t I run away with the circus?”(Gruen, 331). Instead of lying down and waiting for death, Jacob ceases to be powerless once more and life courses through his veins again. Nearly everyone within the circus is powerless to a certain degree. At several points in the novel, it is said that often times the circus performers and workers don’t even get paid half the time, but most do not do anything about it as jobs are very hard to come by. The economic circumstances have contributed to their feelings of powerlessness and helplessness. Camel, a character that helps Jacob get a job in the circus, is struggling with feeling powerless as he is getting older and has little to offer: “I’m about used up. Ain’t good for nothin’ but ticket seller, and I reckon I’m too ugly for that”(Gruen, 50). For people like Camel, once they become useless to the circus they are discarded of by August and his men. “They got tossed over the trestle, all of them. Camel’s head hit the rocks. He died right away. Walter’s legs were smashed up bad. They had to leave him”(Gruen, 306). Rosie, the elephant, is also powerless throughout the story. She has been mistreated and abused as a circus animal/performer and any time she attempts to take a small amount of power back, or doesn’t do what she is supposed to, she is beaten. “August lets loose a long string of curses and runs up beside her, swinging the bull hook, and driving the pick end into her shoulder. Rosie whimpers and this time doesn’t move an inch”(Gruen, 140). Out of all the characters in this story, she is the one that really overcomes the powerlessness. This can be seen during the stampede when Rosie kills August who had been the main person who had been severely abusing her: “When I see Marlena standing beside Rosie, I cry out in relief…(Rosie) lifts the stake…and splits his head in a single clean movement... and then she slides it almost lazily back into the earth”(Gruen, 309). Because of Rosie regaining her power, she is able to lead a happier life with Jacob and Marlena who take care of her into her old age. Similarly, many of the other animals in the circus are powerless until the end of the novel as well. Several examples of this include Rex, a lion who has had all of his teeth pulled, and the fact that the animals are fed rotten meat which can make them sick (Gruen, 86-87). In the end, the animals are able to take some of their power back when they are released from their cages and stampede the circus tent: “Creatures of every sort zigzag, bolt, scream, swing, gallop, grunt, and whinny; they are everywhere, swinging on ropes and slithering up poles, hiding under wagons, pressed against sidewalls, and skidding across the center”(Gruen, 308). Before this, the animals were looked at as playthings, tools, or objects but when they were given freedom, a lot of their power as wild animals was given back to them. Marlena, August’s wife and Jacob’s love interest, also is powerless through most of the novel. She is in an abusive relationship where she is often treated like a possession. Before joining the circus, Marlena was powerless to stop her fate: “she was seventeen, and it had just dawned on her that the recent spate of bachelors joining her family for dinner were actually being presented as husbands…The wheels of fate were in motion”(Gruen, 221). However, Marlena really just traded in one powerless situation for another as she is married to August who is obsessive and possessive. She is afraid to leave with Jacob and have a happy relationship due to the violence and anger of August: ““You whore!” August screams. “You slut. You mangy bitch!” With each epithet, he rips the headpiece further. Then he shoves her so violently she crashes back onto the overturned platters and food”(Gruen, 246). By the end of the novel, Marlena takes back some of her power by not fighting back against August and by not stopping Rosie from killing him. The fact that she, Jacob, and Rosie decide to live a happy life together afterwards does indicate that they have taken the power back and are going to be in charge of their destinies. Even August, the story’s antagonist and the person who steals almost everyone else’s power, experiences a certain kind of powerlessness throughout the story. His powerlessness stems from the fact that he loses his ability to control the people around him and must inflict violence on those that won’t obey his every whim. This can be seen in his relationships with Marlena, Jacob, Rosie, and many of the people who work with him/ for him. In order to keep those around him powerless, he utilizes fear, intimidation, and violence, but this behavior ultimately leads to his demise and leads to August being completely stripped of his powers when he is killed by Rosie. The death of August frees the rest of the characters so that they can lead the lives that they want to lead. The importance of the theme of powerlessness in Water for Elephants is that it is a feeling that many people can relate to. In particular, powerlessness is something that is particularly prevalent in societies with economic troubles as the United States had during the Great Depression—which is when this book is set during—and as the country is facing now. Gruen presents a cast of characters who are helpless and without power. Although the ending does not take the characters from weaklings to superheroes, they have garnered enough control to have more of a say over the direction that their lives ultimately take. This particular theme was also important as it gives the reader characters that they can root for and have a desire to see succeed. Water for Elephants is a novel that is chalk full of themes that are prevalent in every- day life. From animal abuse to poverty to sexuality and relationships, there are many different lenses to analyze the text through. However, one of the most prevalent themes is that of powerlessness which consumes a large portion of the story and an even larger portion of characterization. The author brings these characters to the very brink of having nothing within their control and then allowing some of them to regain bits and pieces of their power. However, in keeping with reality, she does not give everyone back their power which is important to note in the case of August, Camel, and others. Yet, Gruen does allow those that have been most victimized and most stripped of their power to regain some of it. References Gruen, Sara. Water for elephants: a novel. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books, 2007. Print. Read More