Water For Elephants Book 3 Review

Running away with the circus, twice.

 

 

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The circus, the most spectacular show of freaks and talents alike to be praised and amazed by adoring audiences of children and adults. Acrobats, tight rope walkers, bearded ladies and exotic animals took rage in the entertainment business during the 1920s; however the circus performances had been going on in Europe for more than over a century.

Water for Elephants, a historical fiction novel by Sara Gruen explores that spectacular time period of the 1930s and the circus. Publish in May of 2006 as part of the National Novel Writing Month, the book was on the New York Times best seller list for 12 weeks in 2006 at number seven. The paperback hit number one on the New York Times Best Seller list in July 2007.

The film release in April 22, 2011 (2011-04-22) and runs one hundred-twenty minutes of beautiful screen time. Critics alike reviewed positively on rotten tomatoes giving it an average score of 6.1 out of 10. Critic Roger Ebert said on his website, “In an age of prefabricated special effects and obviously phony spectacle, it's sort of old-fashioned (and a pleasure) to see a movie made of real people and plausible sets.” The movie stars Robert Patterson as the main character Jacob Jankowski and Reese Witherspoon as Marlena Rosenbluth.

The book however goes deeper into who Jacob Jankowski really is. The story is told from memories as the older version of himself in a series of well written flashbacks of the past. Jacob, who is about to take his last exam at Cornell University to complete his degree in veterinary medicine receives life changing news. Jacob feels alone and has nothing left and decides to run away irrationally, leaving his final exam incomplete. Jacob travels on foot scavenging through the woods until a late night train passes. He jumps the train only to find a train car full of angry carnies, however though they find Jacob interesting. They keep him around and the boss takes serious interest in him when he discovers Jacob’s veterinary education at Cornell and hires him to tend to the circus animals. Jacob is at first reluctant because he isn’t a licensed vet but they are happy to have him anyways. 

As Jacob tends to the horses, he meets the girl who performs them, Marlena. Marlena is beautiful, stunning and the bosses wife. Instantly there is an awkward chemistry between them and their compassion for animals, especially Rosie the new elephant. While romantic passion isn’t the main focus, Jacob and Marlena’s desire for each other grows stronger. However August, the boss and Marlena’s husband seems to be the only cliff separating them, and a rather large one. He is hateful and violent towards Marlena and Rosie. Eventually the tension leads to one of the most famous circus disasters of all time known as the “disaster march”. (Disaster march is music performed by the band to indicate that a tragic accident has occurred and that all employees are to try and help and assist audiences out and stop the situation.) While the plot can be a little slow, waiting for something to happen, it doesn’t disappoint. The constant conflict between the characters keeps the plot driven and eventually builds up to the end.

The book mainly focuses on Jacob, his journey though grief and how unlikely circumstances allow him to grow and become the person he wants to be, courageous, strong, kind and loved. He learns to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves and for what matters most to him. I recommend this book to anyone who likes coming of age story, a unique historical setting, a light romance, physical altercations and touching characters. I would give both the book and the movie 4 out of 5 stars (the book and the movie follow closely).

 

blog post 9 Water For Elephants

Characters in Water for Elephants

 

Jacob: Jacob (the older version of himself) narrates the story of his life throughout the Benzi Brothers Circus and how he falls in love with Marlene, a circus performer and his boss’s wife. Jacob is a very likeable character throughout the book considering his hardships that he has endured. Jacob has a kind heart, caring for the animals and people at his time in the circus. Throughout the book the reader are left rooting for Jacob to overcome his fears, face tragedies and get the girl.

Marlene: Is an equine circle performer and the wife of August, one of the top bosses. She is kind and loving to her animals and an astonishing circus performer. She is very short tolerant of her husband August who is a ruthless and cruel man. He pushes her away by this drunken rages, violent outburst and fake charming undertones to Jacob, the hired veterinarian.  She is a very likeable character for her oppression from August and her very kind heart.   

 

August: is the equestrian and animal directed of the circus. He is married to Marlene and is very unkind to her throughout the book. August suffers from serious rage issues, violent and hateful towards animals, workers and performers when things don’t go over so smoothly or his way.  He is also a profound con-artist., charming and manipulative to get what he wants. He is the villain of the story and is hated by all other major characters and readers.

 

Rosie: is the elephant they picked up from bankrupt circus insisted by the ring leader Uncle Al. She is proceeded to be dumb—according to her old trainer, however Jacob and Marlene find a connection in the passion for this animal that is actually really intelligent. Rosie is abused by her behavior by August a lot and causes her to run during a performance. August becomes more violent towards Rosie. She is a very likeable aspect of the book because of the uniqueness of her personality and oppression by August.

Post 7 book trailer

Book theif fan made trailer.

blog #8

Non-Fiction vs Fiction

1.       A book has to be 100% percent true in the author’s and factual perspective. If the book has any made up elements or added parts then it should be automatically classified as a fiction based on a true story. Seth Greenland made a good point saying, “Were living in this era where people think truth is malleable… we can’t agree what reality is.” People think they can fix the truth about themselves molding themselves into hero’s or victims of a hard or exciting life that people want to hear when it’s a bunch of made up stuff to create this fictions persona of themself.

2.       Half true stories are okay, but the reader has the right to know that the entire story isn’t true. So to call a half true story a memoir is lying to the audience. The term for these kind of books are based on a true story so the reader knows things are dramatized and personified.

3.       We need lines in genre because when a memoir is true we want to be able to share a person’s success and accomplishments or point of view and give them proper credit and achievement recognition for it. While a good story is a good story a readers should judge them for being classified as either one. Labeling shouldn’t restrict the success of the book.

Blog #6

I think that Gallagher argument is a good reason why schools are committing readicide in their curriculum. Books are over or under taught to the point that majority of students are frustrated or fed up with it. Books are meant to be enjoyed or un-enjoyed and disused their purposes and ideas. While everyone can express their opinion if they liked the book or not I think there are literary books that everyone should be exposed to. If you are forced to read for example, To Kill A Mockingbird you don’t have to necessarily enjoy it but at least understand it. The story is relevant to understand American culture and struggles during the time period where we weren’t all equal. Stories of these hardships are meant to be passed down for everyone to hear so we don’t forget it.

Different teaching ways can help maximize the students experience with a literary text. The more flexible the curriculum is the better students with different learning styles and abilities can  obtain the best way for them to understand and gain something that they are reading. Engaging students into the text to a personal or logical level may help them also connect where they may have lacked before. Pre-learning of a historical text may help a student understand the time period, political background or important people in a book.

Choices are also important when it comes to a students learning ability. More independent novel readings should be allowed or added to school curriculums to allow student with choices to read more modern genre fiction. Students get an opportunity to choose what they want to read and are able to independently asses and understand what they are reading. Students who are able to have choice in their learning will be more involved with it.

Book Project: Fan Expirence

Paper Towns by John Green

Quick Summary:

 

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life–dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge–he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues–and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew. -- www.johngreenbooks.com

Helping Paper Towns reach a new a promotional status, creating a online game based on the book will help open to a wider audence and excite the readers.

The online game allows the readers to become Quentin Jacobsen and go on a quest of clues and problem solving expedition to find his one true love, Margo Roth Spiegelman. Based on the journey of the book the player has to travel far and wide based on clues that Margo has left, that will get them thinking. The jouney through empty subdivisions of central florida to non-existing paper towns in the great state of New York to track down where the mystery of Margo Roth Spiegelman may lie. So, can you find Margo?



Can you find Margo?



Contents:
Part 1. The Adventure. Try to complete the task to help Margo get revenge on her
enemies and maybe strike a few of your own without getting caught.
Then attempt to break into Sea World successfully without gettting caught by security.

Part 2. After passing the adventure Margo and Quentin the nigth before, the detective and Margo's parents
show up the next day concerend about Margo's lack of presence and comminication. Claiming that you
never saw her the detetive and her parents leave, however you spend the next day on your toes
waiting for Margo to show up for school, but she never does.
Worried that she may have run off again you being to discover unruly clues she left behind.
To find Margo if she is alive or dead you have to follow the clues left behind for you to discover.

Part 3. When you have discovered the existance of the paper town of Aloge, New York, gear up to skip your high school  graduation and drive from Orlando to find the mystery girl of your dreams,
with the help of some friends of course.





                                            

Post 2: What is a book?

What is a book?

 A book is a realm into another universe, a new dementia to explore and conquer. The physicality of the book arouses our senses, excited our psyche about another experience we are about to immerse ourselves into. With a book, pages become time machines into new places we haven’t yet discovered. Places of hardships or creatures of fantasy and nothing can quite beat the unique smell of new freshly printed pages.  

Today’s technological world threatens the traditional use of physical books. Human have used books since the dawn of time from hieroglyphics that told stories to handwritten or printed copies of them. Our twenty—first century technologies threaten this tradition human practice of kindles and online readers.  Most authors and older habitual readers would tend to fight for the physical book while younger generations will become more adaptable to the megapixels of words on a elcetronic device. But are these ways of reading really different? Are books just the old horse and buggy way of doing things now?

Tom Piazza Said, “The computer is neutral in that it gives you access to limitless amounts of information… The information has no smell, no weight, no texture. Nothing that seriously impinges on your reality. People think it represents some kind of democratizing of information  because everything is the same size… If everything is the same size, there’s no perspective… Everything becomes two-dimensional, flat.”

So the important question is, what will life be without physical books? Will the electricity we are so dependent on now last for the generations to come? If we are sent back into the dark ages, will there be books for children and adults to read? Will the names of important authors and stories be lost forever? Will physical books become scarce and more expensive and valued? Would a black market for books arise?


Will the book survive? I guess that is up for you own interpretation. However I believe as long as there are intellectuals and individuals alike who enjoy a good story telling read about the triumph of the human journey or informational pages of the depths of our universe there will be books.