Water For Elephants Character Analysis Essay

Yanek Gruener is a ten year old boy living in Krakow, Poland in 1939. He is also a jew, a very dangerous thing to be at the time. In his spare time he dreams of going to America and becoming a movie star. The start of the war Krakow was invaded. Germans flooded the streets and a wall was built around his jewish neighborhood, now called the ghetto. They had to work without pay and the Germans robbed them of their valuables, but that is nothing of what's to come. After a work detail Yanek comes home to see that his family is gone. He goes to the streets looking for them but is kidnaped himself and taken to a train. He later arrives at his first concentration camp.

Pride is an aspect of life that has the ability to either improve or impede on one’s life. It is a reality that many despise. trans……… In the captivating novel, Johnny Tremain, a young boy struggles with the idea of pride. Gifted in every way imaginable, especially silver smithing, the young boy, Johnny, let’s it go to his head. This results in conceited actions, haughty remarks, and an overall arrogance which illuminates from the young boy’s body. Life serves exceptionally Johnny well, until a heinous accident falls upon him, leaving him maimed and useless. Since he no longer attained the incredible talent of silver smithing, Places switched, tables turned, and the once pride full, rude, egoistic boy becomes hated due to the way he once treated everyone else. Johnny allowed his talent and pride to travel into his massive, bloated head. Although enjoyable in the moment, the type of pride Johnny possessed harmed him later on. As John C. Maxwell once stated, “There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” Pride is not always a harmful attribute. People just have to understand the difference between ‘bad pride’ and ‘good pride’.

“Scouts Honor”, by Avi is a realistic short story about three kids that go camping all by themselves in the country.In the beginning, the three nine year old kids worried that they weren't tough enough,so they joined boy scouts.They all wanted to get to the next level in boy scouts, so they went camping all by themselves.Soon they discover that they didn't bring the right things to go camping with, they brought things like canned beans, with no can opener.A dull hatchet, and a whole mattress.In the end, they were all very hungry,cold, wet, and tired.The main character finally said, “Let's go home”.And no one objected.The characters change from being tough to changing their minds about being tough.

With dank lights and cloudy windows, the Astra is carefully tucked into Jasper’s square. A once gloomy reminder of the past, is and will be graciously reborn. An Astra Theater ticket stub holds beautiful memories for old and young. An Astra ticket stub holds the memories of the wonderful history, grimm closing, and a new start.

The American Dream is the idea that all people in America, regardless of race, gender, nationality, or class, can be successful if they work hard enough. This term became more prominent in the early twentieth century as more immigrants came to America with the hope of a better life. These immigrants were willing to work hard in order to rise above their poverty and secure a future for themselves and their families. What is hard work? If a person becomes successful because they broke laws, have they truly fulfilled the American Dream? True success should be found through honest work, and because of this, Jay Gatsby is a manipulator of the American Dream.

In modern day society there is suffering surrounding every individual. However, with the skyrocketing divorce rate, consistent deaths, and changed in relationships frequently proves that in modern day individuals take the necessary steps into ending their suffering to live a more desired life in happiness. In the novel, Water for Elephants ,Sara Gruen emphasizes the suffering in Marlena, Rosie, and Jacob to prove that it takes courage to free oneself from the confinement of marriage, other people, and or old age. Marlena frees herself from the marriage between her and August, Rosie frees herself from an abusive relationship, and Jacob frees himself of the path of rotting away in old age.

The main character makes himself vulnerable and bare while still 'trying to keep his pride' and falsehood of of what he is wanting. Despite his feelings toward “bareness” that causes him to feel like it is staged, this ‘bareness’ stays with narrator throughout the novel as he continues to be the outsider. Even in his words he had to "speak with a kind of bareness, a lack of strategy or recourse" (Greenwell 73). Mitko is developed to the speaker’s narrative. The reader learns about his exploitation, his wants, and his history of illness such as his liver disorder (most likely caused by excessive drinking.) Mitko has a bit of a uncertain nature to him and character that is full of contradictions. The narrator makes note of this, “contradictions that, as they alternate and repeat and thus form patterns and reliances, as much as anything else make up the self” (Greenwell 25). The plot of the story follows these contradictions such as the the speaker's self contradictions of trying to convince himself of his friendship with a man that is only around if he is getting paid. Mitcko was prosperous and is now homeless, and as the narrator put it, “How can we account for them, time and chance that together strip us of our promise, making of our lives almost always less than we imagined or was imagined for us, not maliciously or with any other intent, but simply because the measure of the world's

“I pass legs sticking out of doorways, and signs advertising breadlines. I pass signs in windows that say ‘CLOSED’, and it’s clear they don’t mean for night. I pass signs in windows that say ‘NO MEN WANTED’ and signs in second-story windows that say ‘TRAINING FOR THE CLASS STRUGGLE’ I pass a sign in the grocery store that says ‘DON’T HAVE MONEY? WHAT HAVE YOU GOT? WE’LL TAKE ANYTHING!’” (Gruen 154). The novel Water for Elephants takes place in America during the 1930s. One night while walking through Chicago Jacob explains the economic state of America during the 1930s, breadlines for the starving, businesses foreclosed, people unemployed, and businesses desperate for any type of transaction with consumers. During this time period, of the Great Depression, America was experiencing one of its hardest economic downfalls.

Character development is a crucial element to a story, especially in Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Jacob Jankowski, a dynamic character, undergoes a significant change in his attitude throughout his time at the nursing home. Through the remembrance of old memories from his life at the circus, Jacob Jankowski develops a sense of happiness and rediscovers his independence.

The book I chose to read for this assignment was Defending Jacob by William Landay. This is murder-mystery legal thriller that follows the point of view of a former Assistant District Attorney after a 14-year-old in his town was killed, and his son was put on trial. The entire novel is told within the context of the man, Andy Barber, testifying as a witness in a murder trial. Although, it is intentionally ambiguous whether the trial he is discussing and the trial he is a part of are the same.

Considering the plea that George urged to Wallace Porter in order to aid him, it answers why Porter bought the circus, he saw the elephant. “Seeing the elephant” expresses someone who experiences a tragic event in which he or she did not desire but ended up learning from it; well, at least Wallace Porter did. In Cathy Day’s story, “Wallace Porter- or What It Means to See the Elephant” from her novel, The Circus in the Winter, she writes about generations of the Great Porter Circus who were all centered in Lima, Indiana. Wallace Porter owned the Great Porter Circus in which he bought from Clyde Hollenbach. The circus used to be called Hollenbach’s Menagerie under Hollenbach’s ownership, though after long, difficult years, he had no way of paying

The 400 Blows is a famous French New Wave Style film directed by François Truffaut in 1959. Inspired by his own childhood experience, Truffaut depicts a misunderstood and troubled adolescent, Antoine Doinel, who shares the same childhood experience with Truffaut and is viewed as a troublemaker by his parents and teachers. Antoine is always bullied and oppressed by authorities(parents, teachers, and state officials). Being an unwanted child in his home and unpopular student in school, he is unhappy and always wants to run away. Antoine quits school after being caught plagiarizing Balzac by his teacher. He even steals a typewriter from his stepfather’s work place to get money after he leaves home because he is afraid of going home. However,

How does the death of a friend affect the survivors?Well, What i think it affects someone is with depression.What i think causes depression is being unable to forgive yourself and not being able to look forward to the future.People who feel lost don’t know that you try to help them so they push you away thinking that you would bring up the tragedy.In the novel “Tears Of A Tiger” It shows a kid who suffers these effects and struggles to keep his life as normal as it can be.Andy the protagonist became part of a drunk driving accident along with three of his closest friends,and Andy feels so much pain because his closest friend Robert dies in the accident.Andy doesn’t know how to let go of the pain he feels and he becomes depressed.

In Jacob’s situation, many children go through rough patches in their lives, whether it must deal with status, money, behavior, or peer pressure. Many theorists came up with ways to explain or comfort people with the issues that go on with the youth, but into Jacobs situation, he came from a lower class with good home circumstances but once he got into school. He didn’t like school, he lacked the drive to do good in school plus with trying to fit in with kids of higher status than him, which made him make tough decisions because he wanted to fit in by stealing a leather jacket. Which didn’t work out as the plan he got caught and now is labeled to an outcast from any stores and at school he is shunned from society due to his poor choices. In

Families being torn apart, being ripped from everything they’ve known growing up and being isolated within a camp where no one truly knows what’s happening to them. That’s what was going on in the life of the Jews during WWII, they were being treated as if they were no longer human, being tossed in concentration camps and given just a number to identify them, completely taking away their self importance. The atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust are being subtly portrayed in the movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,”directed by Mark Herman, a story told from the eyes of an eight year old boy named Bruno and his unlikely friendship with a Jewish boy named Shmuel. The movie tells the story of how a young boy begins to realize what kind of solder his father truly is and what is going on during WWII as his parents had kept him enclosed in this idea that all is well in the world. Through the use of imagery, colors, and pathos Mark Herman successfully portrays the horrors of the Holocaust through the innocent and peculiar friendship of two nine year old boys, Bruno and Shmuel.