A 2006 novel by Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants centers around Veterinary Sciences dropout and his experiences as the vet for the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth during the Great Depression. Water for Elephants, after being rejected by publishers initially, went on to become a New York Bestseller and is available in 46 languages.
Water for Elephants is written as a first-person account and closely follows the life of Jacob Jankowski as flashbacks of his 20s, as he spends his old age in a nursing home. Jacob is studying at Cornell when he learns of his parents’ accident and that all their belongings have been possessed by the bank. Unemployed and with no money, he jumps on a chance train which happens to be a circus train. His aptitude as a veterinarian is soon recognized and he is employed by the circus. He soon falls in love with Marlena, the star performer and so earns the jealousy of her husband, August, the animal-trainer and ring-master.
The title, Water for Elephants, is a pun on the job that Jacob performs in the circus. The novel discusses at length the acts and lives of circus performers, and the glamour around it during the 1930s. The business of circus is depicted as a two-faceted world which appears mesmerizing to the audience, but is full of trickery and cruelty. Animals as well as employees are treated cruelly. People are often denied wages or gaslighted, thrown from the moving train, to avoid paying them.
Animal cruelty is a major theme. Gruen who is herself an animal lover, creates a protagonist who loves animals and an antagonist who wants to pull as much money from an animal even at the cost of its pain. Since, the time of the events is around the Great Depression, losses in business is used as well-driven plot point to explain the motivation of the antagonists. The train journey also works as an excellent plot device where the train appears as a sovereign like dystopia where characters are always on move and so appear unattached to the real world, but are thrown back to it when they are not needed.
