Water for Elephants

If someone comes up to you and says that they used to carry water for elephants, you could bet your boots they'd be lying! Just ask Jacob Jankowski who, unexpectedly, spent the majority of his years as a young man working with a traveling circus.  Jacob never expected to end up on a circus train when he left, but at that point he didn't care one bit.  Jacob actually was finishing his schooling at Cornell to be a veterinarian along with his dad when tragic events occur.  I'm not going to give away the entire book, because I want people to read it! The book puts readers through many emotions as they see the life of Jacob - we see him grow up and learn the truths about life on the road and the morals of many people along the way.

Sarah Gruen uses an interesting characteristic to separate Jacob from the other men on the train.  Jacob is Polish, and he uses his first language to separate himself from the hard life on the train. For example, Jacob's first day on the train, he must force himself to remember all the norms that the working-men live by.  Jacob is highly criticized when he says something wrong (even though he is usually asking simply questions).  On page 55, Jacob is being shown where he will sleep for the time being, and across the train, he hears a man speaking, but his host tells him to quiet down (in a rather rude manner, I might add).  Jacob recognized what this man was saying "Ojcze nasz któryś jest w niebie, swięć sie imie Twoje, przyjdź królestwo Twoje i nie wódz nasź na pokuszenie ale nas zbaw ode ztego. Amen" as our Lord's prayer.  Jacob does his best to forget about the ignorance of his host, and also says amen.  Gruen also portrays this language barrier when Uncle Al buys an elephant.  The man selling Rosie (the elephant) warned Uncle Al that she is the dumbest animal alive.  Trying to train her, the men became frustrated and treated her poorly.  However, a man working with the circus, yet not responsible for Rosie, had worked with elephants before and knew that elephants were trained in Polish.  Proving this, Jacob says "nogę, Rosalie!" Rosie did nothing.  He then said "proszę?" To Jacob's astonishment, Rosie actually lifted her leg! This goes to show that speaking to and acknowledging one's own language is not only respectful but a moral thing to do.