Water For Elephants By Sara Gruen: An Analysis

In 2015 there was a ban on the use of wild animals in the circus in England. However, Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen takes place in a circus during the dirty thirties therefore; there has not yet been a ban for the use of wild animals. The poor economic conditions at the time everyone was going broke and few had jobs. Due to Jacob Jankowski receiving life changing information leaving him with absolutely nothing. Jacob then decides to run away and hop on a circus train going past him. This circus is run poorly with no laws to keep people and animals safe. One of the many themes in the novel is, life is not always easy, but hard work pays off in the end. This is evident due to the hard and unsatisfying lifestyle, improper care, and abuse

The circus is struggling with money due to the Depression causing people to not get paid, “For the first time in show history, there is no money for the performers” (Gruen 282). This makes it difficult to feed everyone sufficiently, including the animals. The animals would often be fed rotten food or other animals that have died at the circus due to illness. Along with not having money and insufficient amounts of food, they did dangerous things on a daily basis. For example while the train is moving, people would walk on the roof of the train to get to another car. This slowly becomes something they are used to, “Without further ado, he leans forward, catches ahold of something around the side of the stock car, and climbs nimbly to the roof” (60). By walking on the roof, Jacob and Marlena get to see each other during the night without August knowing. Therefore, all the hard work and unsatisfying lifestyles pay off for Jacob and

Due to the poor financial situation the circus is currently in, there is no veterinarian on board. The regular workers, with a lack of knowledge, were the vets for the animals before Jacob. When Jacob shows up everyone is excited to hear he has attended Cornell University, due to some of the animals being sick, like Marlenas horse. Along with the animals, the workers, and performers are unable to access a doctor easily due to lack of money. This was stated when Jacob said, “ I want to get him a doctor, but I'm flat broke and so is he” (183). Even though the doctors and vets are valuable they are not treated that way at all. For instance, when Jacob first got to the circus he was sleeping “on a crumpled horse blanket against the wall” (62), for the first few nights. The first night he slept on the blanket he woke up the next morning and scratched his “arms and neck raw”(62) due to the unsanitary conditions. Even if Jacob was going through tough, life threatening times, it all worked out in the end for him because he survived the great