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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s
AlTaher, Bassmah
The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s Water for
Elephants
Bassmah Bassam Khaled AlTaher
German-Jordanian University, Jordan
Abstract
Humanity has always wanted to find peace, order, and justice in a perfect world. Yet,
this longing manifested in literary works, has been touched by the dark side of reality,
transforming Utopia into Dystopia; a world of conflict and chaos. Sara Gruen (1969)
captivates this undeniable reality in her novel Water for Elephants (2006) and shows
that the so called ideal society can still have a tragic flaw. This study intends to prove
the existence of a Dystopian world in Sara Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants, and
how it is shaped within a miniature society of a circus. In the life of this circus, the
elements of Dystopia come together to portray the degeneration of society during the
Great Depression of (1929 – 1941) in the United States of America; creating a world
everyone thought at the very beginning was Utopia. Therefore, this study unravels the
layers of perfection and shows the flaws of this so called perfect man-made world (the
circus) by using the theoretical approach of the term Dystopia and applying it to the
novel, one finds that the events that lead to the hero’s abandonment of everything
because of the Great Depression in America, ends with the hero’s triumph over
shackled circumstances in which he is played as a pawn. This feature of ending
oppression and fighting for his and his society’s freedom is a major quality of a
Dystopian Hero; in contrast, a Utopian Protagonist stands aside, simply being
objective in society as he studies the perfect laws and nature of such a perfect world.
Keywords: Utopia, Dystopia, Circus, Great Depression, Dystopian Hero
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The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s
AlTaher, Bassmah
1. Introduction
The United States of America endured a decade of hardship and adversity during the
Great Depression (1929 – 1941). Ten years of prosperity during the 1920s was
celebrated by various financial leaders throughout the country, and a lot of those
people believed that it was the dawn of a new age in which good profit and money
were duplicated easily with flourishing businesses and successful deals. Yet this era
of hope did not last long; when the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929,
it shocked many wealthy stockholders with its severe losses. This caused a lot of
suffering at all levels throughout the nation as the American citizens struggled to cope
in perishable circumstances; many people were out of work, jobs were scarce, and so
the “good times of the 1920s were replaced with the bread lines, soup kitchens, and
the wandering homeless. The administration of President Herbert Hoover took
unprecedented actions to relieve the crises, but nothing seemed to work” (Ayers,
2009, p.624). As a result of this situation, the economic crises spread worldwide
creating poverty, unemployment, deflation, and plunging farm incomes. The
depression as known, started in the United States of America with the fall of stock
market prices, and soon after, it affected stock markets globally. Thus, the American
Dream of gaining wealth and power in a minimum amount of time became the
American Nightmare for the residents of the United States of America. The hungry
nation drifted apart, and it was basically a survival for the fittest. Many writers and
idealists tried to create an ideal utopia in order to escape the bitter reality and find
some peace once again. Some even searched for it, claiming that they had the
roadmap to heaven, for life forced men, women, and children to dream for a better
place (Ayers, 2009, p.624). However, not all societies that are perceived as perfect are
Utopia, but in fact, the subtle beginning of a Dystopia. Simply because all attempts to
perfect those worlds are made of power, manipulation, and injustice (Hermansson,
2011).
A happy land without history where all the citizens are all mentally and morally in
tune brings about the failure of Utopia, simply because man by nature is selfish and
greedy. A counter-point in literature known as Dystopia is thus created, because every
man strives for individuality and unique power of his own; this element could be a
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s
AlTaher, Bassmah
major role in transforming what was known as Utopia, into Dystopia. Briefly, Utopia
is defined as a certain society that holds idealistic values in all parts of the way of
living; such is legislation, housing, education, and economy. As for Dystopia, it is
similar to the Utopian world, but differs in the aspect of government and hierarchy as
classicism and inequality leads always to its failure (Wells, 2011). With this
Dystopian notion, Sara Gruen (1969) takes advantage of this dystopia and manifests it
ideology in a microcosmic world of her own known as the Benzini Brothers Most
Spectacular Show on Earth.
The word Dystopia was first used by John Stuart Mill in 1868, an English
Philosopher, political economist, and liberal thinker, when Mill denounced the
government’s Irish land policy. Mill strongly objected on a parliamentary dispute
about Ireland in which the conservative government’s proposal to build a Protestant
Church, and keep the Catholic one in order to please all sides. Thus, Mill (1868)
makes his famous statement about this matter:
I may be permitted, as one who, in common with many
of my betters, have been subjected to the charge of
being Utopian, to congratulate the Government on
having joined that goodly company. It is perhaps, too
complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather
to be called dys-topians, or cacotopians. What is
commonly called Utopian is something too good to be
practicable; but what they appear to favor is too bad to
be practicable. (p.1517)
From this meaning, one can allude to how it functions as an ideology applied to a
certain community. A community that coexists with mankind in utter perfection is
basically a dream world, what Mill alludes here is that with the existence of a Catholic
Church and a Protestant one, the civil war will never cease. Harmony will coexist
with the two faiths as proven already in history of the endless battles in England
between the Protestants and the Catholics to make a dominant religion in the country.
Catholicism ruled England, Ireland, and Scotland for thousands of years, and was
basically the main religion throughout Europe. “In the 1500s, Catholics began to
question the power of the pope, who led the Roman Catholic Church” (Banting, 2002,
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p.8). The question lies whether Ireland is any different? “Between 1534 and 1537,
King Henry VIII tried to force Roman Catholics in Ireland to give up their religion
and follow Protestantism” (Banting, 2002, p.8) One may allude that life does not
function the way people want it to be, for power corrupt, classicism, and mankind’s
selfishness would bring about the downfall of an attempt to perfect society.
The Canadian-American writer, Sara Gruen (1969), manifests Dystopia in various
aspects of her novel Water for Elephants (2006). The story revolves around the
protagonist, Jacob Jankowski, whose penniless and homeless situation led him to join
the circus as a veterinarian. His boss, known as August, is violent and everyone fears
him with great caution, even his young, beautiful wife Marlena is frightened of his
madness at times. Jacob soon finds himself attracted, and then falls in love with
Marlena. However, when unraveling the novel, many parts reflect the elements that
create a Dystopian world, especially in its settings, characters, and main events. The
characters and events of the novel go beyond the mere reader’s perspective of a
typical love story developing in a magical place of the circus into a visual drama of
lively characters and impulsive behavior. In order to prove that a Dystopia truly exists
in the world of the novel, the original atmosphere and how the characters react to such
an extraordinary place is analyzed through theoretical basis in detail in this paper.
2. Review of the Related Literature
This study is completely original. What has been dealt with, whether in the form of
books, articles, and the like, is the continuous analysis and explanation of the growing
concept of Dystopia in literature. In dealing with Dystopia, most critics attempt to
define the term and give its historical origin, while explaining its functionality.
Michael D. Gorden, Helen Tilley, and Gyan Prakash (2010) state that
Dystopia, utopia’s twentieth-century doppelganger, also
has difficulty escaping its literary fetters. Much like
Utopia, dystopia has found fruitful ground to blossom in
the copious expanses of science fiction, but it has also
flourished in political fiction (and especially in antiSoviet fiction), as demonstrated by the ease with which
the term is applied to George Orwell’s 1984, Evgenii
Zamiatin’s We, and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New
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The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s
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World…Dystopia…is a utopia gone wrong, or a utopia
that functions only for a particular segment of society.
(p.1)
This definition simply defines the term Dystopia and does not tackle its various forms.
A Dystopian world can not only be seen in science fiction or political fiction, it can
also be seen in a simple community that strives for perfection. This small society can
be a normal family or a nation, as long as there is a group of people who need to
escape their reality and search for a better place, this new society that they have joined
is their new home in the shape of Dystopia. Other critics perceive Dystopia as critical
Dystopia. Alexander Hall (2009) explains that:
non-existent society described in considerable detail and
normally located in time and space that the author
intended a contemporaneous reader to view as worse
than contemporary society…the critical dystopia,
according to Moylan, carries out an intertextual
intervention that denies the negation of the critical
utopian moment. (p.2)
A twenty-first century reader can only imagine a contemporary Dystopia that exists in
the far future, yet that is not always true. A twenty-first century reader can look back
in time with non use of science fiction and simply look at a simple historical fiction
and discover a Dystopian world embedded within. Its form may not seem so obvious
at first, but its function and shape is actually a mold of Dystopia in its subtlest way.
However, when looking at the novel on its own, many critics wrote positive reviews
on the novel in common perspectives. The New York Times’ journalist, Elizabeth
Judd (2011) noted that Water for Elephants’
Circuses showcase human beings at their silliest and
most sublime, and many unlikely literary figures have
been
drawn
pretensions
to
their
and
glitzy
pageantry,
metaphorical
soaring
potential…
Unsurprisingly, writers seem liberated by imagining a
spectacle where no comparison ever seems inflated, no
development impossible. For better and for worse,
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Gruen has fallen under the spell. With a showman's
expert timing, she saves a terrific revelation for the final
pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an
enchanting escapist fairy tale. (p.1)
Water for Elephants is not only an escapist novel in which characters escape their
unpleasant life into a better one, but also a novel that fits into the Dystopian genre; a
genre in the sense that the atmosphere, characters, and plot make up Dystopia. What
can be seen by these vivid characters and lively animals in the circus is the fictitious
development of a society longing to be perfect through illusion and misconception.
Hence, a Dystopian society comes to life. In this study, this miniature society is dealt
with through analysis of the Dystopian Hero, Jacob Jankowski, and through the
conflict between social classes of the novel; the performers and the workers. The
novel’s ending proves even further this hypothesis of relating the circus to Dystopia,
for every imperfect and unbalanced society lays its downfall. The outbreak of the
revolution at the end of the story, and how it brought about the downfall of the circus
proves the very existence of Dystopia.
The Great Depression (1929 – 1941) caused a lot of suffering throughout America in
the aftermath of the Crash of the stock market in 1929. Even though the American
administration tried to relieve the crises, there was widespread agony across the land,
turning the American dream into an American nightmare. As a consequence of this,
many writers wrote about it as a fall from Utopia. Thus, fiction witnessed the advent
of a new genre known as Dystopia.
The idea of Utopia first became known in English Literature through Sir Thomas
More’s Utopia (1516), a fictional novel that deals with political issues, where he is
able to draw a perfect world with an ideal community. The name Utopia “is a
compound Greek word meaning literally ‘no place’ or ‘nowhere,’” (More, 1999, p.15)
yet, the English homophone euotpia derived from the Greek words εὖ and τόπος that
mean ‘good place’, can imply a whole different meaning to a godforsaken place. A
person who first hears of utopia will get the impression that it is an unattainable state
because it is no where to be found, but when that person understands the English
meaning of it which means a good place, then that person would assume it is possible
in existence. With this ambiguous terminology, More adapts many literary and
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philosophical ideas from various sources to create perfection on an island in the
Atlantic ocean. The political hierarchy of More’s novel is then based on recognized
merit and effort; the people of Utopia, the Syphogrants and Tranibores are “elected
annually, and the princes, or ‘first leaders,’ chosen from among those who are thought
‘most meet and expedient,’ serve for life unless ‘put down for suspicion of tyranny’”
(More, 1999, p.5) Debate on public affairs, like the issue of crime and punishment,
prevails among the Utopians in order to conduct their public issues by using
democratic forms. The protagonist, Raphael, tries to learn Utopia’s laws, behavior,
and manners in the story, an outsider visiting Utopia. This hero sits quietly, listening
and observing the Utopian life and dares not alter anything because of its perfection.
Hence, there is no ownership of a certain land or property, doors are unlocked, and
everyone works in taking care of the land planting crops. Equality dominates the
island of 54 cities. This is relevant in terms of identifying Utopia’s counterpart,
Dystopia, and so it would become easier to distinguish between the both when the
Dystopian circus is introduced.
However, the idea of Utopia seemed too perfect to be true. Power or the need of
power can always corrupt a man; moreover, as a human being, man is limited in
various ways in which help should be provided, and of course when one lacks
practicality, then a ruler would face higher risks by losing moral judgment. Man can
try to idealize his world, but in the end, it would fall apart. The old Utopias ignored
that “reproductive competition among individualities which is the substance of life,
and dealt essentially with its incidentals” (Wells, 1908, p.82). A happy land without
history where all the citizens are all mentally and morally in tune, yet this so called
harmony never seems to last, and inevitably bring about the failure of Utopia. This
created a counter-point in literature known as Dystopia. As human beings, every man
strives for individuality and unique power; this generates greed and selfishness, and as
a result Utopia is transformed into Dystopia.
The word Dystopia is originally a Greek word meaning ‘bad or ill;’ (Gottlieb, 2001,
p.5) from this meaning, one can allude to how it functions as an ideology applied to a
certain community. Dystopia is usually associated with science fiction; a future of
advanced technology brings about the fall of man kind. For example, the famous
Hollywood movie In Time is set in the far future where time is of the essence; people
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have timers on their arms to count how much time they have left; once it hits zero, the
person dies suddenly. However, in order to comprehend the actual sense of this
ideology, various aspects should be explained. First of all, “for a thematically more
neutral definition of this ‘bad place,’…dystopia [is looked] as a social structure that is
worse than the present social system” (Gottlieb, 2001, p.5). Dystopia’s rules force
oppression over a society. Moreover, it portrays a repressive society that fears change,
technology, or the unexplainable. This society always tends to fear its great fall, hence
individuality is a given right to the ones in power, like the government, and alienation
is bound to its people. According to Niclass Hermansson (2011), the irony of its
pretentious democratic ways is found in the character of an accomplished and a
competent person who is suppressed or stigmatized, considering him to be above
others; intellectuals, scholars, and scientists are thus considered to be a threat. In
addition, the dystopian world finds itself isolated from nature; the people are alienated
from all that is green, making a person confide to darkness and indoor life in most of
his or her life. However, some Dystopian societies are founded in the natural world.
The main focus is going to be on the Dystopian Hero and how the atmosphere helped
transform the weak, scared child, into a strong fighter.
Generally, the background of the story that depicts a Dystopian world takes place
after a crisis; for example, war, famine, or revolution in order to create a new
government delegated by the charismatic people of the remaining society. Usually the
people in power are shallow and follow their own pleasures. “Some are even brutal
and cruel. Unlike utopia where the rulers are just and caring for the well-being and
comfort of their citizens, the Dystopian rulers are oppressors and dictators, using
flawed laws that cause corruption in the society” (Hermansson, 2011, p.1). Because of
this corruption, there is black marketing and bad goods are sold. This often creates a
revolt from a group of oppressed people that spreads through the whole community
and brings down the corrupted government. Mainly, the revolt begins with the
protagonist, a Dystopian character who has lived the unjust cruelty for years, and can
no longer stand the injustice inflicted upon lower class people. “Conflict is basically
the main issue in bringing about the first steps of change [towards a positive change];
the protagonist usually trusts a group of people whom withhold powerful positions in
the government, but later on back stabs the hero in the end” (Hermansson, 2011, p.1)
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Thus, Dystopian literature attains a climax of revolution at all times, aspiring tragedy.
However, the ending always takes the Dystopian Hero’s favor and a new life is
produced before the hero. Whether this new life is good or bad one, it is something
else than the life the hero had, usually, an indication at the end shows that the hero,
who is finally freed from all authoritative constraints, is happy for being finally able
to create decisions of one’s own. Destroying Dystopia could either be possible or
impossible, in some novels and short stories, and even science fiction, the Dystopian
world is usually shaken up by the rise of the people and sometimes, they lose their
case when opposing the powerful and corrupted rulers. The escape of the protagonist
is also a sign of triumph; in a sense this person is able to run away from an oppressive
life and finally live a normal life with a rather balanced power and rights division. As
a result, Dystopia is but a mortal trial to establish an immortal state that rulers think is
the best for their people, but the means in which they conduct their state is unjust and
wrong, and so Dystopia must be destroyed at the end.
3. Research Methodology
This study is analytical in the sense of analyzing events and characters to elaborate
how the Dystopian world came to be. In short character development analysis and plot
analysis are used throughout the whole process. Moreover, the study is theoretical by
applying the attributes of Dystopia as a genre. The historical background of the Great
Depression is used in order to portray the becoming of Dystopia in the circus during
the mid 1930s. Sarah Gruen (1969) uses The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular
Show on Earth as her refuge for her main hero, Jacob Jankawski, and whom the paper
refers to as the Dystopian Hero. Moreover, attributes of the genre, Dystopia, like the
use of an actual historical calamity to push people to create a Dystopian society, the
idea of having a tragic hero who revolts against a tyrant, are applied to the novel in
order to show how the Benzini Brothers’ Circus is a miniature society of a corrupted
hierarchy, disguised as a sanctuary for all those who are lost in the Depression. By
doing so, the study adds to the definition of Dystopia that it does not have to be set in
the far future in the world of science fiction, but it can actually exist in a historical
fiction, and take the same shape as it would in a world full of robots or aliens.
4. The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants
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Water for Elephants is set in two realms, a nursing home in the present times, and a
circus in the past. In order to justify how Dystopia came to being, a real life crisis
should be presented in the background. In the case of Water for Elephants, the crisis
is related to the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States of America. It is
formally known that the Great Depression expanded throughout the world. Among
those countries was Poland, from which our main hero of the novel, Jacob Jankowski,
comes from. At the beginning of the novel, Jankowski is seen as an old man who is
confused whether if he is ninety or ninety-three-years old, and would reminisce about
the circus. He remembers the 1930s in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University, where
he is in his final semester studying to be a Veterinarian. Gruen subtly projects the
background information of her novel in the first chapter, hinting the origin of the
Jankowski family. Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski state that the “Great
Depression brought a sudden fall in marriage-and birth-rates, the result of common
pauperisation and anxiety about setting up a family or having more children”
(Landau, 1985, p.86) made various couples decide to bear only a child or two. This
reflected in the Jankowskies having an only child, Jacob. The Great Depression in
Poland also explains why so many Poles immigrated to America and to other
countries before the Depression, and why the number of immigrants decreased after it.
Many even returned to Poland because they had lost their jobs or couldn’t find any.
“A characteristic feature of economic depression was that migratory movements
diminished, especially those of people seeking work abroad…Between 1930 and 1935
emigration from Poland totalled [sic] 448,000 people, whereas in the previous six
years more than 900,000 Poles had emigrated.” (Landau, 1985, p.86) Gruen uses this
information and chooses to place the Jankowskies’ veterinarian business in Ithaca to
bankruptcy, and in order for Jacob’s father to pay off Jacob’s tuition fees at Cornell
University, he had to mortgage the house. The Depression caused more misery for the
Jankowskies, as it forced many people to pay for veterinarian services with other
things than cash. This is all revealed to Jankowski, a young man in his twenties, when
he is summoned to the offices of Edmund Hyde, Esquire:
Apparently my father has been taking payment in the
form of beans and eggs for nearly two years…
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‘Beans and eggs?’ My voice cracks in disbelief. ‘Beans
and eggs?’
‘And chickens. And other goods.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘…The community’s been hit right hard, and your
father was trying to help out. Couldn’t stand by and
watch animals suffer’ (Gruen, 2011, p.25).
In this dialogue we discover how the situation was so difficult for Jacob’s father to
obtain money, and as a man of morals, he offered his services in exchange for things
rather than money. Gruen delves further in showing how the Depression spread
throughout Jankowski’s colleagues at university:
I even remember the ones who had to drop out after the
Crash: Henry Winchester, whose father stepped off the
ledge of the Board of Trade Building in Chicago.
Alistair Barnes, whose father shot himself in the head.
Reginald Monty, who tried unsuccessfully to live in a
car when his family could no longer pay for his room
and board. Bucky Hayes, whose unemployed father
simply wandered off (Gruen, 2011, p.29).
People had lost literally everything; their home, their property, and even their family.
This brought about the sense of loss in people and a need to belong somewhere that is
safe and sustainable. With the likes of so many lost people during the Depression, the
creation of a Dystopia is inevitable. Many people searched for a new hope, Jankowski
searched for a reason to live after the death of his parents and the loss of everything
he ever owned. He has no one to turn too, and with only a few surviving relatives in
Poland, he finds himself wandering aimlessly on train tracks. He loses all sense of
purpose and leaps into the nearest train. Thus, Jankowski finds himself on board a
train of the “Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth”. A circus train, with
a whole new way of life beating inside of it as one isolated community, it heads
towards various cities and towns in order to make a decent living. In this environment,
Dystopia is created, as it promises many others like Jankowski for a warm meal and a
place to stay. Shelter offered in a magical world creates a feeling of hope within its
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members, despite the fact that it is a miniature of the actual reality; it is able to
proceed with promises and dreams for its residents, creating a false Utopia.
There are several elements in the life of the circus that make up the Dystopian world;
therefore, each aspect of the circus is analyzed, such as classicism, government, and
the workers. In the journey of the main hero, who will be later on identified as the
Dystopian Hero, Jankowski is soon able to find some work by helping out in various
tasks around the circus, and he is pleased to do something for the menagerie. At first
when he watches the first show, he is dazzled by it:
The big top still stands, glowing like a ghostly coliseum
and pulsing with the sound of the band. I stare at it,
entranced by the sound of the audience’s reactions.
They laugh, clap, and whistle. Sometimes there’s a
collective intake of breath or patter of nervous shrieks
(Gruen, 2011, p.62).
Jankawski is greatly attracted by this world because it offered him a home again. It is
also a place of wonder and illusion, which made him forget the troubles he was going
through. He later learns of the hidden segregation and corruption behind the smiles of
the performers and workers. He finds out that the people who work at the circus are
divided into two classes: The working class, the workers, and the ruling class, the
performers. Obviously, the working class has lesser privileges, perks, and even space
to bunk in the train. The segregation can be seen even when they all gather for their
meals at the cookhouse:
The sidewalls of the cookhouse have been raised to
allow for a draft, but it divided down the center by a
curtain. The tables on the side are graced with red and
white checked tablecloths, silverware, and vases of
flowers. This seems wildly out of sync with the line of
filthy men snaking behind the steam tables…The tables
in the other half are set end to end, their bare wood
graced only with salt and pepper shakers. No flowers
here (Gruen, 2011, p.43-44)
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At the beginning, Jankowski is treated as a plain worker. A kind old man named
Camel, allows him to stay on the train and finds him some work. This creates an
opportunity for him to meet with Uncle Al. Uncle Al and August Rosenbluth are two
powerful ringleaders. After hearing that he was studying at Cornell University as a
Veterinarian, they appoint him as the circus’ veterinarian:
‘So you missed the exams. Big deal.’
‘It is a big deal.’
‘No it isn’t. It’s just a piece of paper, and nobody here
gives a damn about that. You’re on a show now. The
rules are different.’ (Gruen, 2011, p.130)
In this dialogue, August Rosenbluth (one of the ringleaders) and Jankawski are
discussing the importance of education. Rosenbluth believes that in the life of the
circus, a degree does not matter at all, what matters most is a man’s contribution to his
work. This brings about the sense of security for Jankowski, and so he simply does
what he is ordered to do, and mingles with the rest of the workers and some of the
performers. At first he shares quarters with Camel in a cold corner of the train, next to
piles of hey. Later on, when Rosenbluth takes interest in him, he upgrades his
sleeping quarters and bunks him with a well-known performer, a dwarf called Walter,
known as Kinko in the realm of the circus. Gruen portrays segregation of each class
by projecting the little matters like places to sit in the Cook House, or where to sleep
in certain quarters. The performers are treated with delicate care and attention,
whereas the workers are treated with indifference and demeaning ways:
Performers emerge from sleepers closer to the back of
the train and of obviously better quality. There’s a clear
hierarchy: the closer to the back, the more impressive
the quarters. Uncle Al himself climbs from a car right in
front of the caboose. I can’t help but notice that Kinko
and I are the human occupants closest to the engine
(Gruen, 2011, p.90)
This shows the performers’ advantage over the workers:
The odor of unwashed bodies and clothes is
overwhelming. The bunks, stacked three high, hold at
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least one and sometimes two men, as do the spaces
beneath them. The fellow wedged in the floor space
across me punches a thin grey blanket, trying in vain to
form a pillow (Gruen, 2011, p.68).
In retrospect, this reveals the critical point of Dystopia; segregation. Moreover, the
workers come together and speak in a vernacular language which distinguishes them
from the sophisticated performers; codes are used to refer to the upper class are used
in order to protect themselves. Jankowski, tries to mingle with the working class, and
finds it important to learn their vernacular to be accepted as one of them. Mocked and
scorned, Camel is the only person who helps and teaches Jankowski their vernacular.
Among the words he teaches are ‘kinkers’, which is code for performers, the ‘First of
May’, which means welcome the new worker, and ‘Hey Rube’, which means a fight
between the performers and the workers. Yet, Jankowski can not truly mingle with the
workers because of his personal social status as being part of the educated rank, he is
then taken under Rosenbluth’s wing and assigned to take care of a horse named Silver
Star, the show’s leading act. Silver Star is deeply infected between the hoof and the
coffin bone, forcing Jankowski to put him down. This incident brings him closer to
Marlena L’Arche, Rosenbluth’s wife. He finds himself attracted to her simplicity and
kind hearted soul towards people and animals, despite her high status as the number
one performer. Consequently, a Dystopian Hero emerges; Jankowski is seen to fit the
profile of being one. A modern Dystopian Hero is more likely to be also known as a
Vonnegut hero; a term referring to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922 – 2007), a Twentieth
century American Writer, who wrote several dystopian novels. Major themes in his
novels are related to alienation and class segregation. Thus, Jankawski is a hero who
actually sees the injustices of the ruling class and wills for a change or destruction of
the system. Robinson Wells, the author of the upcoming YA Dystopian novel Varient,
defines the Dystopian Hero as “the lens through which we see that setting. Whether
the protagonist initially understands the societal problems…or doesn’t…the readers
still learn through the main character.” (Wells, 2011, p.1)
As Jankowski delves further into this wonderland, he starts to see reality; workers
working as slaves under harsh circumstances, animals are forced into tight and small
compartments, and performers act out their allegiance to the ringleader, but are true
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hypocrites in every sense of the word. This contradicts the illusion of bedazzlement
and fair treatment to all; Rosenbluth clarifies this point in his conversation with
Jankowski:
No. It’s nowhere near. It’s probably not even the fiftieth
most spectacular show on earth. We hold maybe a third
of the capacity Ringling does. You already know that
Marlena’s
not
Romania
royalty.
And
Lucinda?
Nowehere near eight hundred and eighty-five pounds.
Four hundred, tops. And do you really think Frank Otto
got tattooed by angry headhunters in Borneo? Hell no.
He used to be a stake driver on the Flying Squadron. He
worked on that ink for nine years. And you want to
know what Uncle Al did when the hippo died? He
swapped out her water for formaldehyde and kept on
showing her. For two weeks we traveled with a pickled
hippo. The whole thing’s illusion, Jacob, and there’s
nothing wrong with that. It’s what people want from us.
It’s what they expect (Gruen, 2011, p.131).
The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth is a Dystopia of illusion. It
also creates isolation for the workers, making them feel that they have to work twice
as hard in order to get a decent pay. Uncle Al would even feed them less just like the
animals to achieve his goals:
‘Where to?’ I ask.
‘Into town, for breakfast,’ he says. ‘Doubt there’s any
food here. Probably won’t be until tomorrow.’
‘Jesus – really?’
‘Well, we’ll try, but we hardly gave the advance man
time to get here, did we?’
‘What about them?
‘Who?’
I point at the defunct circus.
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‘Them? When they get hungry enough they’ll mope off.
Best thing for everyone, really.’
‘And our guys?’
‘Oh, them. They’ll survive until something shows up.
Don’t you worry. Al won’t let them die.’ (Gruen, 2011,
p.145 - 146).
The irony in Rosenbluth’s behavior in being close to Jankowski, and acting as a friend
rather than a foe turns into a warning sign for Jankowski. The more Jankowski learns
about the true character of Rosenbluth, the more he discovers the demented ways
Rosenbluth is capable of doing in order to enforce power. Jankowski is trying to
comprehend everything that is going on around him, and studies Rosenbluth’s
character carefully, especially after Rosenbluth tries to kill him for giving orders in
his place. Rosenbluth forces Jankowski to feed a lion called Rex, and ends up biting
Jankowski’s arm instead. Jankowski was lucky enough that Rex has no teeth, and
only gave him surface wounds. Moreover, Jankowski notices the way Rosenbluth
treats his wife Marlena. At times he would treat her in refined gentleman-like
manners, at other times he would turn aggressive and lose control. Upon seeing this,
Jankowski could actually understand Marlena’s unhappiness with her husband, and
feels the obligation to protect her. He, on the one hand, realizes the circumstances he
is in, but still has no strength to leave or change it, thinking that the world beyond the
circus has been swallowed whole by the Depression. There will no longer be a home
waiting for him, nor a veterinarian practice to go back to. This brings about the
feeling of being trapped. “The protagonist is learning more about the problems of
their situation…both physically and socially. Their physical isolation comes in the
form of constant surveillance and inability to speak freely or act freely” (Wells, 2011,
p.1). This is why Jankowski finds it hard to project his own thoughts when
Rosenbluth’s eyes are sharply set on him and Marlena.
Dystopian protagonists are often ideological than practical, and are willing to take
huge risks to do the right thing for him or his people. Wells states that all Dystopian
characters are basically rebels “when they decide to take an action, whether it is to
attempt a revolution, or disseminate information or simply escape, they understand
that the consequences are very dire” (Wells, 2011, p.1). The image of a rebellious
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Jankowski appears when he faces a life-threatening choice; to runaway with Marlena
and the circus. Apparently, Rosenbluth’s fear of losing Marlena to another man makes
him an obsessed, and is constantly jealous of Jankowski. Through violent behavior, he
then brings out his rage by accusing Marlena and Jankowski falsely of having an
affair. This act brings out his paranoid schizophrenic side and ends up fighting and
hitting them both on false grounds. The realization of direct harm comes as
Dystopia’s climax:
The first time it happened we’d only been married three
weeks, and it scared me to death. He beat one of the
menagerie workers so badly he lost an eye. I saw him
do it. I called my parents and asked if I could come
home, but they wouldn’t even speak to me. It was bad
enough that I’d married a Jew, but now I wanted a
divorce as well? My father made mother tell me that in
his eyes I had died the day I eloped…Three weeks later,
another menagerie man lost his arm while helping
August feed the cats. He died of blood loss before
anyone could find out the details. Later in the season I
found out that the only reason August had a string of
liberty horses to give me was that the previous trainer –
another woman – jumped from the moving train after
joining August for an evening in his stateroom. There
have been other incidents, too, although this is the first
time he’s turned on me (Gruen, 2011, 338 – 339).
Marlena explains her fear of Resenbluth to Jankowski in tears and sorrow. She
realizes that Rosenbluth is not the man she thought he was, and has been trying to
escape her marriage ever since. With this revelation, they both plan their escape, but
they are deeply involved and know too much about the ringleader’s corrupted ways,
especially Rosenbluth’s. This triggers certain chain reactions that happen immediately
right after their knowledge of the truth. Dystopia soon tumbles towards its downfall.
The following events twists into chaos; Jankowski could not leave Camel alone after
being paralyzed from drinking too much; he has to ensure that Camel reaches the
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town Providence safely to deliver him to his son. Marlena falls in love with
Jankowski during these rigid times, and decides to run away with him and start a new
life away from the circus. Walter helps Jankowski, Camel, and Marlena to run away
once they hit Providence. Rosenbluth is lost without Marlena, who no longer sleeps
with him in the same car, and moves up to the Virgin Car with the other women.
Uncle Al is furious by the show not being able to go on without Marlena or
Rosenbluth performing their best act. At first, Jankowski tries to soften Uncle Al by
making him think that Marlena is just angry with Rosenbluth and will go back to him,
and all she needs is a bit of time to come around. This is, however, part of the plan to
stall time and reach Providence with Marlena out of harm’s way. Jankowski’s huge
risk is to free her from the clutches of Uncle Al and his men, as well as Rosenbluth’s,
and ensure Camel’s safety. Furthermore, find a new place to settle down with Marlena
in world swallowed by the great Depression. What brings about the downfall of
Dystopia is when Rosenbluth sends out his men to kill Jankowski and get rid of
Walter and Camel by ‘red-lighting’ (circus term for throwing people off a moving
train) them. Jankowski is able to get away, but Walter and Camel could not:
‘They got tossed over the trestle, all of them. Camel’s
head hit the rocks. He died right away. Walter’s legs
were smashed up bad. They had to leave him.’ He
swallows and adds, ‘They don’t reckon he lasted the
night’ (Gruen, 2011, p.383).
The injustice could not be tolerated anymore by the working class, especially when
many of their friends were tossed out of the train alive like ragged dolls. Because of
Jankowski’s strength to stand against Rosenbluth, and protect Marlena, he actually
sent a subliminal message to his fellow mates that injustice must pay its toll. Hence, a
revolt began between the workers who were thrown out. They opened the cages of the
menagerie during one of its performances and ruined the whole show. Jankowski on
the other hand was consumed with the fact of rescuing Marlena from the stampede
and more likely from Rosenbluth. It turns out that Rosie, the elephant, has a vendeta
of her own on Rosenbluth. Rosenbluth hit her real hard with a hook without mercy,
and now amidst the stampede of running people and loose animals, Rosie did the
unthinkable:
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Rosie
stretches
out
her
trunk,
reaching
for
something…Rosie has pulled her stake from the ground.
She holds it loosely, resting its end on the hard dirt. The
chain is still attached to her foot. She looks at me with
bemused eyes. Then her gaze shifts to the back of
August’s bare head…She lifts the stake as though it
weighs nothing and splits his head in a single clean
movement – ponk – like a cracking hardboiled egg. She
continues to hold the stake until he topples forward, and
then she slides it almost lazily back into the earth
(Gruen, 2011, p.386-387).
Rosenbluth lies dead on the floor, and the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show
on Earth comes to its end. Although Rosie has taken matters into her own hands, she
would never have done it without the love and affection from Jankowski and Marlena
throughout the training sessions and constant performances. Jankowski’s care and
good treatment towards Rosie made it impossible for the elephant to live any longer
with Rosenbluth’s cruelty.
In the end, Dystopia seizes to exist, the illusion is broken, and reality is back to its
true form. Jankowski, a hero of all means, has tested his moral compass and self
worth, and discovers the bond he feels with the animals along with Marlena. His ideas
and compassion stirred the wounds of the ones who faced injustice and managed to
stand up for themselves. Jankowski may have started out fighting for his true love, but
ended up lighting the path for others to find their way to freedom, justice, and reality.
By this, Dystopia in the circus is foreover ruined, and it takes a Dystopian Hero to
accomplish such a task.
5. Conclusion
Water for Elephants has truly captured the Dystopian world by creating a circus, and
bringing into light imperfections of human nature to prove that Utopia is just a
segment of one’s imagination. With the will of a Dystopian Hero, the flaws of
Dystopia come to light, and the readers are invoked to think upon what might have
happened if Jankowski did not rebel against the social norm, and just simply accepted
matters as they were; injustice, cruelty, and a dysfunctional society would truly
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prevail without a doubt. Therefore, it is vital to have a Dystopian Hero found in every
Dystopia to bring about this world’s downfall.
About the Author:
Bassmah Bassam Khaled AlTaher is a Ph.D. student in English Literature at the
Department of English, School of Languages, the University of Jordan. She currently
works as a lecturer in English with the German-Jordanian University in Amman,
Jordan. Literature is her main focus in the academic field; therefore, scholarly
research and education is an aim she seeks to gain through teaching and research. The
modern novel and cinematography are her main interests in the areas of research as
these genres contribute to the fields of identity, transculturation, neo-racism,
feminism, and the struggle between classes.
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