Water for Elephants: Week 7, Post B

I have to say, your book Water for Elephants definitely got better at the end. I liked the second half of the book much more than the first half of the book. However good the last half was, I didn’t like the ending. Everything worked itself out in the end, and I had always thought that there wouldn’t be a happy ending. Not to say that I hate happy endings, because I almost always love them in books, movies, and shows. For some reason, I didn’t like how this book had a happy ending. I have no idea why, and it was very weird feeling like that. I think it might be because the rest of the book was so depressing and almost nothing happy ever happened, besides Marlena and Jacob falling in love. But everything else seemed to be going wrong. It felt too different for the very ending to be happy and nothing else. Don’t get me wrong, because I really liked the ending. It was so sweet how Jacob found someone that would take care of him and have good company with, being able to talk about the old circus days with him, and being able to actually be working somewhat in the circus just like the old days. I think that’s really sweet, but it seemed completely out-of place with the rest of the book which was sad and almost depressing. So, it was a good ending and I liked having that closure for Jacob, but it was out-of-place with the rest of the book.

Water for Elephants: Week 7, Post A

VOCAB:
1. Placating (282): to allay the anger of, appease
2. Trestle (296): a framework consisting of vertical, slanted supports and horizontal crosspieces supporting a bridge.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
1. “The knife is still gleaming, still throwing and catching light” (297). This is a personification, because a knife (inhuman object) cannot throw and catch something, giving the knife human characteristics.
2. “And savoring them, as though I was fingering smooth stones” (299). This is a simile, because it compares two unlike objects using the word “as”.
3. “My mind is spinning in even smaller circles” (318). This is a personification, because Jacob’s mind (the inhuman object) cannot spin in circles, which gives it human characteristics.

QUOTE:
“Oh, it’s just not fair! All those decrepit old people who won’t even know what they’re looking at, and here’s me! Trapped in this lobby! Or am I?” (321). This quote is significant because it says how annoyed Jacob was when his son forgot to come pick him up to see the Ringling circus. He was so excited to see this circus, and now he won’t get to because his son forgot. He is so disappointed now. He feels like his family does not care about him anymore and that they forget him all the time now that he is old.

THEME: The final and overall theme of the book is that you need to make the best of every situation that life brings in front of you.