Water For Elephants Literary Analysis

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Pages: 5
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Sasha Pramesti
Ms. Lawson
AP Literature and Composition
6 January 2015

Water for Elephants - Dialectical Journal

Style
“I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other” (Gruen 5).
“I’m twenty three and sitting beside Catherine Hale” (Gruen 15).
In disparity between the first-person narrator’s ages in chapters one and two introduces readers to the novel’s narrative structure, whereby Gruen intertwines the narrator’s story in the present and in the past. This structure allows us to have a more solid and personal experience in Jacob Jankowski’s, which is a technique that is much more effective than having present-day Jacob simply retell the circus stories. Only reading about Jacob’s past and not his current life would not make the novel as captivating …show more content…
This is especially evident when the food arrived for the Benzini Bros. August tells Marlena to eat, but she refuses to because she cannot stand to eat while others are starving around her. The setting, the Great Depression, did not turn Marlena selfish.
Characterization: August
“It's hard to reconcile this August with the other one, and to be honest I don't try very hard. I've seen flashes of this August before – this brightness, this conviviality, this generosity of spirit – but I know what he's capable of, and I won't forget it. The others can believe what they like, but I don't believe for a second that this is the real August and the other an aberration. And yet I can see how they might be fooled--” (Gruen 229).
August is the stereotypical antagonist - cruel and abusive. He may occasionally appear as genial, but Jacob does not let August’s generous nature overshadow August’s true evil character. August’s character in the eyes of Jacob remind readers not to be fooled by a villain’s deceit.
My choice
“‘They can’t make it… When I called, he [Simon] remembered, but he’d already made other plans. There was no answer at the other numbers.’ ...My face twists, and before I know it I’m sniveling like a child” (Gruen
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