Theme Of Family In Water For Elephants

Description: August is Marlena’s husband and the head animal trainer. He is alternately charming and brutal, both to the humans and animals aboard the Benzini Brothers train. Later in the book, it is explained that he is a paranoid schizophrenic.

People often think of family as positive, loving, and with no flaws. However, there is almost a stereotype that all families love each other and there aren’t problems or challenges in a family. Sometimes families put people through challenges and some families aren’t “perfect”. In the book Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff, Jolly has two kids and goes through challenges with her family. Most careful readers can see how Jolly has these challenges with her kids and how she is far off from the “perfect” family. She goes through many of these challenges in life and finds a way to overcome them. Jollys family shapes her identity because the challenges she faces ends up making her stronger. Jeremy and Jilly challenging her, LaVaughn helping her out, and her past family all shape her identity.

Another strong theme from the book is the importance of family bonds, especially if that’s

Family is strongest when it is through blood, true family can only be biological. In addition the relationship between blood relatives is always more powerful and meaningful even if the members of such family are not close. The relationship shines through and is still strong, in particular, an example from ODACTTT is when Barb

Is family important to you? Are they with you through your life? Do they make you laugh and happy? Well the place in the book is a mess. The government is corrupted and the people were not fair. The rich were separated to a different part of the city away from the poor. Families were lost and abused like Day’s. In the Legend series, Marie Lu illustrates the theme that family is important to happiness through Day’s actions, Day’s symbolism and Day’s dialogue.

Junior gave me his bucket, took my empty one, and returned to the river. When he came home, the first thing he did was ask me if I was hurt from falling. I told him I was fine, but he examined my knees and elbows anyways, and when he was done, he tickled me.” (pg. 39) This shows the theme because Junior, his older brother, didn’t learn any magic, but he wanted to keep Ishmael’s imagination running, and give him something to believe in. When Ishmael fell, It was obvious that Junior cared deeply about his younger brother and wanted to make sure he was okay after falling. Another example of family as a theme is towards the end of the book, when Ishmael is talking about when he was seven. He wrote, “Pa Sesay, one of my friends’ grandfather, had told us many stories that night, but before he began telling the last story, he repeatedly said ‘This is a very important story.’... ‘There was a hunter who went into the bush to kill a monkey. He had looked for only a few minutes when he saw a monkey sitting comfortably in the branch of a low tree. The monkey didn’t pay him any attention, not even when his footsteps on the dried leaves rose and fell as he neared. When he was close enough and behind a tree where he could clearly see the monkey, he raised his rifle and aimed. Just when he was about to pull the trigger, the monkey spoke: ‘If you shoot me, your mother will die, and if you don't, your father will die.’...’What would you do if you

Jacob’s father was an extremely talented carpenter whose skills allowed him many privileges similar to those of a white man. He was allowed to work at his own trade as well as manage his own affairs with the condition that he pay two hundred dollars a year to his mistress and supporting himself. He wished to pay for his children with his earnings and tried many times, however, he was never successful. She also had a brother that was two years younger than her that she adored. While she loved both her father and younger brother, she had a special bond with her mother and maternal grandmother. She had a loving, nurturing, and supportive relationship with the both of them. While she knew she was a slave, she was shielded from the reality that she and

People often believe that family is one of the most important things in the world. This is seen in the historical fiction novel, The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis when the Watson family take a trip to Birmingham, Alabama, during the Civil Rights Movement. The author uses symbolism to convey the message of family, during the Watson’s long road trip in their new car to Alabama.

In Water for Elephants, the story is told through Jacob Jankowski at two different parts in his life: twenty-three year old Jacob who is out there exploring the world and, ninety-three year old Jacob who feels like he is wasting away his life in a nursing home. Water for Elephants is Gruen’s third book, it became one of the New York Times best sellers, it’s also available in forty-four different languages and it’s now a motion picture (Sara Gruen). Throughout the novel the reader is brought through both Jacob’s happy memories and ones that he wishes he could forget which shows its impact on the reader, a sense of catharsis and its social significance.

One example of the family realizing the importance of family is evident starting in the first chapter, as the main character

Another way that family was there for Jacobs was how her grandmother made sure that she never went hungry like the rest, due to meager portions of food given to slaves. Or how her grandmother supplied clothes for Jacobs, "for on my various errands I passed my grandmother's house where there was always something to spare for me…grandmother, to avoid detaining me, often stood at the gate with something for my breakfast or dinner…it was her labor that supplied my scanty wardrobe." Having family around to help support each other meant suffering less hardship.

The movie Water for Elephants and the book Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen are both intriguing stories that capture one’s heart when reading the book or watching the movie. Though both versions of the story seemed fascinating, I happened to find the book better than the movie for many reasons. Due to the book being told from one of the main characters, Jacob’s, point of view, gave a certain view and understanding of the use of imagery, characterization, and detail, in which the movie was not able to illustrate as well.

In the beginning of the story, there are significant times that the theme of family comes up, and in the scenes of the beginning it shows what family does, so a complex theme I got was that family when incomplete acts as a motivator and it will push you until the family is back together again. The first scene that showed this was on page 9. On this page the characters are talking about their family and what they look like. At first this scene did not really have much meaning to me, but as I read on, I noticed that the conversation led to talk about their father. This supports my claim because at first with the talk of family, we could see that the conversation was about sisters and brothers, but because they shifted to fatherhood, that shows that when it is incomplete it acts as a motivator. The motivation is no really right into the open it is hidden, because it did not make them do anything in the name of finding their father at this point, but I noticed that it did lead the discussion to fatherhood.

A family can be defined in many different ways and almost every person has their own view and definition of families. Some may define it as simply as the blood relatives they have grown up with, living in the same home for most of their life. Whereas others, including myself, have a much more in depth or personable definition. No matter the culture or living situation, my definition of a family is the people I know will be there for me whenever I need them to be. This includes not only my actual blood related siblings, parents, grandparents and cousins but also my best friends and even some of my parents’ close friends that I have known the majority of my life. Family should not be defined by blood. I have an aunt that was adopted which means she is not blood related, but I still fully consider her family, I believe this has an impact on my own definition of a family. Television today has changed the views and stereotypes on American Families. Stereotypes include the family having a mother and father living in the same home where the mother is a stay at home mom, while the father makes a living for the family. Also the family is usually Caucasian and considered wealthy, living in the suburbs. The shows such as Full House, Good Luck Charlie Keeping Up With The Kardashians have had a major impact on how societies view families in this day and age because of the way they follow these American Stereotypes.

What is a family? What parts make up a family? These two questions are questions that millions of adults and children ask themselves regularly. When people think about a family in their head they think of a nuclear family. Where you have a Mom, Dad, and a few kids running around a home in the middle of a suburban wasteland. That is the nuclear family that I feel most modern families strive to be like. But factors can change within a family and still be a family. I do not believe that a family is strictly based off what people see from the front porch looking in. A family is about the everlasting bond that is formed between a group of people whether they are related by blood or by other means. A family is a group of people who stick together during hard times and good times, they laugh together and they cry together. They eat meals together, party together, are weaved together in life. They are like a strip of palm leaves, and when you weave a bunch of them together it makes a basket, that is a family. The people that someone can call at two in the morning on a Wednesday just because they can’t sleep. The ones who would sacrifice anything to help them. The bond can never be broken because the word “family” holds them together like glue to wallpaper.