Water for Elephants

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-13

Chapters 14-19

Chapters 20-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Rosie

The author prefaces Water for Elephants with an epigraph: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant… / An elephant’s faithful—one hundred per cent!” This epigraph is from a children’s book by Theodor Seuss Geisel (under the pen name Dr. Seuss) called Horton Hatches the Egg, which is about an elephant named Horton who endures hardships in his quest to protect a bird’s egg abandoned by its mother. By using a quote from a children’s book about an elephant, Gruen lays the foundation for a story centered on a particular pachyderm. Rosie the elephant symbolizes important ideas in the novel. The novel opens with Rosie at the center of the pivotal stampede, and not until the end of the story does the narrative reveal the truth of Rosie’s involvement in that climactic event.

Circuses in the past prided themselves on offering a spectacle of extraordinary and exotic animals. Elephants, with their colossal size and keen intelligence, were the quintessential circus attraction. When the Benzini Brothers circus acquires Rosie, Al considers her the answer to restoring his failing operations and the symbol of their future success. However, Rosie won’t be easily tamed, especially when she becomes the object of August’s harsh abuse. Although all the animals in the circus are neglected in some way, Rosie’s human-like mannerisms incite more empathy. Jacob has overlooked much of the animal cruelty up until now, but when August beats Rosie until she bleeds, he can no longer ignore the violence:

It’s impossible to describe how tenderly I suddenly feel toward them—hyenas, camels, and all. Even the polar bear, who sits on his backside chewing his four-inch claws with his four-inch teeth. A love for these animals wells up in me (145-46).

Rosie stands as a reminder that using animals as entertainment for humans is unjust and that keeping them in exhibitions like circuses for that purpose can be detrimental to their health. Rosie symbolizes the evil of animal cruelty and humanity’s responsibility to honor and protect all living creatures.

Elephants are touted for their extraordinary memory. At times, however, Jacob is frustrated that Rosie doesn’t appear to remember August’s cruelty: “He whispers in her ear, and she basks in the attention, trumpeting happily at the sight of him. Doesn’t she remember?” (229). Even as a veterinarian trained to work with animals, Jacob is perplexed by the behavior of this wild creature. Rosie indeed has an excellent memory—but it doesn’t function in the way humans expect or understand. Through Rosie and the elderly Jacob, the author establishes memory as precarious and nuanced: Jacob struggles with short-term recall but has clear, vivid memories of his past. However, when the stampede reaches its climax, Rosie shows that she hasn’t forgotten August’s abuse—and exacts justice on the cruel taskmaster: “She looks at me with bemused eyes. Then her gaze shifts to the back of August’s bare head” (309). Rosie’s murder of August is the first memory Jacob shares in the narrative and one he says he could never forget. Rosie, once a gentle creature in Jacob’s view, has been reduced to man’s violent state.

The Pocket Watch

Pocket watches have historically been valued as more than just objects that tell the time. Often made of gold or other precious metals, a pocket watch doubled as a fashionable accessory and a status symbol. Pocket watches were also valued as family heirlooms and passed from one generation to the next. Jacob brings little of his previous life on the circus train with him, but he does still have his father’s pocket watch. The watch reminds him of his father and symbolizes a father’s influence on a son. Jacob inherited his father’s love for animals, and though he’s gone, Jacob honors his memory by continuing to care for the welfare of all creatures in his circus work. Jacob must part with the watch to pay for Camel’s care, but even this sacrifice pays homage to his father’s caring nature by showing compassion for his suffering friend. August’s gift of a new watch is generous and lavish, but the expensive replacement doesn’t hold the same sentimental value as the old one.

The presence of timepieces at different intervals in the novel also highlights the passage of time. The narration approaches the story from two ends of a time sequence—a new beginning and an end that circles back to that beginning. The young Jacob constantly checks his watch to stay on the circus schedule and lives in fear of missing the whistle call to board the departing train. As the intensity of his situation with Marlena grows, he knows the clock is ticking and he has limited time to escape with his life. The elderly Jacob views time differently, as he knows each passing day is another step toward death. He lives by a schedule set by the nurses and has little agency over how he spends his time: “All I can do is put in time waiting for the inevitable, observing as the ghosts of my past rattle around in my vacuous present” (14). In some of his final moments in the care facility, Jacob anxiously watches a clock, waiting for his family to arrive and take him to the circus. Once Jacob makes his own way to the circus, he abandons the moment-by-moment study of the clock and looks back on his life, thinking philosophically about the passage of time: “But it all zipped by” (327). Through the narration of both the young and elderly Jacob, the author uses watches and clocks as symbols of aging and of marking significant moments in a life well lived.

The Train

By the 1930s, train tracks stitched the country together, creating a pathway to transport goods and people across the nation. During the Great Depression, the railways became a means for people to find work and a home in the wake of a catastrophic economic downturn. After the death of his parents, Jacob searches for a way out of his grief and out of a life that no longer makes sense to him. When the train rumbles past, he sees it as a sign and hops aboard, not knowing where it’ll take him. The train at first symbolizes escape for Jacob, but as he learns more about the culture of the circus society he has inadvertently joined, the train becomes more of a prison than an escape.

For the Benzini Brothers circus, the train reflects the operation’s caste system. The performers, or “kinkers,” reside in the choice state cars at the end, while the workers, or “roustabouts,” are crammed into bunked cars stacked like cargo near the engine. Walter is housed near the animals, indicating the lowest rank on the rail. As the train winds its way around the country, all of them are keenly aware of their place in the hierarchy and live in fear of being “red-lighted” or thrown from the train if the circus no longer needs their service. Although the train is in constant motion, its riders have no hope for upward mobility; they’re mired in their stratum, trapped in the service of Al’s operation. For individuals desperate to keep their job, the train symbolizes the hope of connection to something larger than themselves and the promise of surviving another day in desperate times.

As the elderly Jacob ponders the past, the train symbolizes adventure and nostalgia. He notes the absence of the train from the modern circus: “It’s after the show—a damn good show, too, although not of the magnitude of either the Benzini Brothers or Ringling, but how could it be? For that you need a train” (326). Despite its negative aspects, the circus is exciting, and nothing can replace the heart-pounding adventure of hopping from car to car or the thrill of the train arriving in a new town to deliver a sensational show to expectant audiences. Beyond the circus, the train represents a bygone era before the automobile was king and the locomotive offered a chance for escapades and escape.