Water For Elephants Compare And Contrast Essay

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One main similarity between the movie and novel, “Water for Elephants” is the conflict between August (one of the main protagonists) and three other main characters: Rosie the elephant, Marlena (August’s wife), and Jacob. In the novel, as soon as Jacob meets Marlena, he already knows that her relationship with August is violent. Even though her domestic abuse becomes out of control, Marlena keeps it a secret from Jacob and everyone else in the circus because she feels she feels like it is a sensitive subject to talk about. When Marlena and Jacob plan to throw a surprise get together for August, August intervenes thinking they are planning a “postcoital celebration” instead (Gruen, 244). After August catches them together, they yell, “Surprise!” to which August replies, “A surprise, yes...Or so you think” and then he “shoves Marlena so violently she crashes back onto the …show more content…

But as soon as she enters the circus, she then becomes a new target for August to take out his anger on. For example, when Rosie does not follow August’s orders, he “smacks her from behind...swinging the bull hook and driving the pick end into her shoulder. Rosie whimpers and this time doesn’t move an inch. Even from a distance, [they] can see that she’s trembling” (Gruen 140-141).In this scenario, only Jacob and Marlena are aware of the physical abuse that Rosie undergoes. In the film, Rosie’s abuse is also kept “behind the scenes”. During one of Marlena’s acts, August stands behind Rosie, jabbing her with the bull hook to make sure she doesn’t run out of the menagerie during the act. Nobody in the audience can see what August is doing from behind the giant elephant. In other words, both Marlena and Rosie have to put on false faces and look happy for the spectacle. Therefore, Rosie ,as well as Marlena, both accept oppressive consequences in order to put on a spectacular and illusory

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