Water for Elephants

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-13

Chapters 14-19

Chapters 20-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 14-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 14 Summary

Marlena has been missing since her accident. August, who is distant and says little to Jacob, has tamed Rosie with the bull hook enough to parade her around for patrons but hasn’t attempted another performance with her in the ring. Earl summons Jacob to check on Camel, who’s experiencing paralysis in parts of his body. Although Jacob has no experience treating human patients, he agrees to examine Camel, as Earl says Camel’s too old and not valuable enough to the circus to waste time and money on a doctor. Jacob tries to comfort Camel but has little to offer. He wants to stay with Camel, but Earl won’t let him. Walter tells Jacob that Camel has “jake leg,” a form of paralysis from drinking poisoned extract. Jacob considers using some of his wages to pay for a doctor, but Walter says there’s no cure for the paralysis—and on payday, many workers walk away empty-handed. Walter tells Jacob that Al is holding back pay because he’s short on money. However, the performers always get paid. Walter tells Jacob that Al will red-light the workers he doesn’t pay to prevent an uprising. Jacob fears that Camel will be red-lighted but finds that Grady and the others have hidden him. Jacob doesn’t get paid and goes to August for help. Marlena has returned and says a doctor will examine her the next day. Jacob must use his father’s pocket watch to pay the doctor to examine Camel. The doctor confirms Walter’s assertion that there’s no cure. Jacob hides Camel in his car. Marlena appears and asks if she can see him in her stateroom. She thought he needed the doctor because he’d contracted a disease from Barbara. She confesses that she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about him since he kissed her in the alley.

Chapter 15 Summary

As Camel’s condition worsens, Walter and Jacob try everything they can to make him comfortable. Walter even gives up his cot and finds real liquor to ease Camel’s pain. Jacob chafes under the separation from Marlena and longs to see her again. When they make a stop, Walter goes into town to find more information on Camel’s son. After some resistance, the son agrees to meet them in Providence and take his father. Lucinda, “the fat lady,” dies, and Al assembles a large funeral procession to parade through Terre Haute. Large crowds attend, and many people cry. Jacob attends the evening performance, and Marlena’s return to the ring is spellbinding. She conducts an intricate performance with the 10 horses and dazzles the crowd. After the show, Jacob can’t sleep, so he goes to spend time with the horses because it makes him feel close to Marlena.

Jacob returns to eating breakfast with Marlena and August. Jacob mentions how much he enjoyed her performance, which angers August. Jacob explodes, shouting that he’d never even heard of the Benzini Brothers before jumping on the train. August only laughs patronizingly at his outburst. Al, desperate to fill Lucinda’s spot, makes a grievous error when he asks the Police Superintendent’s wife to join them. The town officials ask the circus to leave, and everyone prepares for a hasty departure. In the chaos, Walter can’t find Queenie and refuses to board the train without her, but Jacob scoops him up into the car just as the train leaves. The mood in the car is somber, as Walter mourns the loss of his best friend and Camel’s condition worsens. He’s angry that Walter contacted his son. Walter tells them his mother sold him to the circus when he was a teenager. Marlena arrives the next morning with Queenie. August rescued her from under the train as they were leaving. At their next stop in Columbus, someone steals the lemonade. It’s a costly loss, and Al is furious. Upon investigation, he discovers that it was Rosie and blames August. When August goes to punish Rosie, Jacob chases after him, but Marlena begs him to stop, saying it will only make the situation worse. Marlena cries, and Jacob comforts her.

Chapter 16 Summary

Back in the nursing home, the elderly Jacob has been calling Rosemary “Rosie.” She gently corrects him, but he can’t remember what he said to her: “God only knows what I’ve been saying. I only know what I’ve been thinking, and even that’s in retrospect—until I suddenly found myself here, now, I thought I was there” (216). Frightened, Jacob confesses his fear to Rosemary. She says she’ll speak to the doctor. Left alone, Jacob admits that his mind has been slipping. When his children and grandchildren visit, he sometimes can’t remember their names.

Chapter 17 Summary

Marlena and Jacob hold each other, trembling, knowing what August is doing to Rosie. Marlena tells Jacob her life history. Her parents tried to marry her off to an older man when she was only 17. Marlena met August when her family attended the circus, and his demeanor with the horses instantly charmed her. August, 12 years older than Marlena, intently pursued her, pushing her to decide before the circus left town. Al pressured Marlena to join the circus. She’s now devastated that her fate is sealed, and she can never be with Jacob. He later feels guilty for choosing to stay with Marlena instead of defending Rosie. Everyone is shocked to hear how brutally August beat her. Camel has become increasingly demanding. Walter has procured whiskey, and Jacob asks if he can have some for Rosie, explaining, “‘I’ve got some making up to do […] I let her down today’” (225). When Jacob goes to Rosie, he sees that she has collapsed and has bleeding wounds all over her body. Greg is administering ointment and speaking to her in Polish. Jacob realizes that Rosie responds to the Polish commands. He reports this finding to August, who uses the new knowledge to train Rosie to perform in the main show. Marlena makes Rosie a sequined headdress to match her costume. August transforms into a new person, and the enthusiasm spreads throughout the circus—but Jacob still doesn’t trust him. Jacob attends confession to rid himself of his guilt. Before the show, August presents Marlena with a diamond necklace and gifts Jacob a pocket watch to replace the one he gave the doctor for Camel’s care. The first night Rosie performs is a momentous success, and the crowd showers an exuberant Al with money.

Chapter 18 Summary

Jacob congratulates Marlena for the success of the performance, but August watches them angrily. Marlena invites Jacob to her tent for a celebration. She asks him to bring Rosie. Grady helps Jacob secure Rosie in the tent. They feed her watermelons. Grady is concerned about Camel’s condition. He tells Jacob that Camel served in World War I. Grady says he has heard rumors that the workers will finally get paid. Marlena arrives and pops a bottle of champagne. August appears and assumes Marlena and Jacob are sleeping together. In a fit of rage, he smashes the table. They deny his accusations, but he doesn’t believe them. August rips Rosie’s headpiece and curses Marlena, attacking her. Jacob intervenes, and he and August fight, smashing Marlena’s mirror. Workers step in to separate them and go into the tent to keep August from harming Marlena. Walter takes Jacob back to their car and cleans his wounds with moonshine. Walter stays up all night, clutching a knife, fearful that someone will come to red-light Jacob. Later, Marlena arrives. She has a black eye. She and Jacob go to the horse pen, and she reveals that she’s leaving August.

Chapter 19 Summary

Rosemary helps the elderly Jacob dress for the circus. He’s adamant about wearing his bowtie. As the nurses line up wheelchairs for the residents to wait for their loved ones, a lady named Ipphy grabs Jacob’s hand, thinking he’s her husband, Morty. Her cognitive state unnerves Jacob but reminds him of his slip-up earlier. As the time for the show draws near, Jacob realizes that no one’s coming for him. Rosemary calls his children and discovers that Simon was supposed to come but forgot and is now too busy to take Jacob to the performance. Jacob cries, and Rosemary comforts him like a child. Jacob says, “‘You’re a good girl, Rosemary,’” (258), not realizing that she’s a 47-year-old grandmother (258). She tells him that she’s moving to Richmond to be closer to family. Sadness overtakes Jacob, and he asks to be alone.

Chapters 14-19 Analysis

Lucinda’s death marks a low point for the circus, as it’s losing money, and tension mounts as the surly, unpaid workers begin to grumble. True to his devious personality, Al exploits Lucinda’s death for profit, feigning sadness and grief over her loss to draw a crowd. Just as August used Silver Star’s lifeless body to feed the hungry cats, Al exploits Lucinda’s death to the advantage of the bankrupt troupe. The theatrical funeral procession is another example of the lack of respect for humanity in the circus culture. In life, Al used Lucinda’s body for profit, and in her death, he doesn’t respect the loss of her as a person, just as a loss of revenue. Further compounding his lack of humanity, Al throws men off the train whose wages he can’t pay. Forcing transients off a train was a frequent practice in the Depression era—but Al’s version is particularly barbarous, as he tosses individuals who worked for him off the train at a place where they’ll likely fall to their death. Jacob finds himself trapped in a maze of jealousy and cutthroat politics. When he hopped aboard the circus train, he entered a phantasmagoric waking dream hurtling down the tracks from which he can’t escape.

August temporarily turns his ire toward Rosie and away from Jacob and Marlena. He punishes the grand creature for not bowing to his authority. Rosie’s theft of the lemonade is humorous—but only briefly, as it results in a brutal beating from August. The scene demonstrates Rosie’s intelligence and leads to Jacob’s discovery that the elephant understands Polish. This is a tremendous breakthrough for both her training and her welfare. Using her native language, Jacob can train Rosie to act in the show, and August mercifully relents from his abuse. The fact that Rosie understands Polish is ironic considering Jacob’s ethnic heritage. As a veterinarian, Jacob feels a connection to animals and uniquely communicates with them. Knowing he and Rosie literally “speak” the same language further endears her to him. When Rosie enters the ring and astonishes the crowd, the mood of the circus staff lifts with the hope to become profitable again. Jacob senses that the lull is temporary, however, as he has learned that he can’t trust August.

Jacob and Marlena grow closer, and though she was coy at first, she now reveals her strong attraction to Jacob. She shares her personal story about her hasty marriage to August. In addition to their sharing a love for animals, Jacob and Marlena both fled their lives and joined the circus to escape. Unfortunately for Marlena, she ran from an arranged marriage into an abusive, controlling one and she sees no way out of her unstable union with August. Although she and Jacob haven’t acted on their attraction beyond a kiss, August senses the shift between them. He explodes into a violent tirade after the performance, leaving both Jacob and Marlena nursing physical and emotional wounds. The narrative tension increases as Marlena announces to Jacob her intent to leave August. The author intensifies the romantic connection between the lead characters. However, a dark pall looms over them, as their pairing is ill-fated.

The author explores the theme of Acceptance and Belonging in these chapters, particularly through the characters of Walter and Camel. As Jacob spends more time with Walter and the two men care for Camel, he comes to learn more about their painful pasts. Walter reveals that his mother sold him to the circus when he was an adolescent. Although Jacob feels like an outsider to circus culture, Walter’s story creates empathy in the protagonist as he learns what it’s like for a person to be discriminated against based on physical stature. When Walter contacts Camel’s family, he learns that the family has all but forgotten Camel, and no one wants to care for him. Camel and Walter are two men who would normally never associate with each other, but circumstances have thrust them into close contact, and they find common ground in sharing their trauma over a bottle of whiskey. Just as these men search for acceptance in a world that doesn’t understand or care for them, the elderly Jacob grasps for any thread of belonging in his advanced age. Abandoned by his family and shunned by his fellow nursing home residents, Jacob’s only friend is his nurse, Rosemary. Jacob’s childlike behavior is common among people experiencing memory loss due to cognitive changes. Although Rosemary must comfort him like a crying child, Jacob finds acceptance in her benevolence. Her tender care for Jacob is a drastic shift from the harsh lack of compassion in the circus community.