Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants is a story of love, empathy, overcoming obstacles and surviving the great depression One major theme of Water for Elephants is the capitalist greed of the powerful maintained by the sacrifices of the weak. In the book, Uncle Al and August whose sole purpose is to maximize profit at the expense of their subordinates Jacob, the roustabouts, and the animals are the subordinate population of the circus and are thus at the mercy of their ability to produce profit for the bosses. Capitalism is a central idea in Jacob‘s story, and the capitalist tendencies of Benzini’s Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth are evident from the beginning of the story and until its collapsed When it comes to maximizing profit, Uncle Al makes sure that for every penny he puts into the circus, he gets much more back, and he ensures this by exploiting his animals and workers to their utmost limits.
For instance, the animals at the Benzini’s Brothers Circus are treated so inhumanely that scraps of meat, no matter how putrid, became cat feed. When faced with the task of feeding the cats, Jacob said “Oh my God,” while wiping tears from his eyes and still gagging from the grotesqueness of the so call cat’s food (pg. 84) Jacob clearly states that it wouldn’t be right to feed the cats the horrid, decomposing meats that were meant for them, yet he does regardless to stay in the circus and survive possibly being redlighted, The matter that of food is a big theme throughout the book as it demonstrates the not only the workings of the Great Depression but also the cruelty of the circus‘s bosses Uncle Aland August ability to disregard the dietary needs of the circus animals illustrates the working of profit maximization in a capitalist society, August feeds the cats just enough to keep them alive and thus keeping them working to their deaths.
When it comes to new acquisitions, Uncle Al has a strong capitalist way of doing business, While Jacob cared for and sympathized with the animals of the neighboring circus that had fallen, Uncle Al only cared about the profit that he could make from scavenging on the reminds of those animals. Jacob felt the need to feed and water the animals left behind, but August wouldn’t let him because that is not the way they do business Capitalist August explained this to Jacob when he said, “.ult’s how Uncle Al does business, He and the mayor will play chicken for a while, the mayor will figure out he doesn’t have a fucking clue what to with giraffes and zebras and lions, he‘ll drop his prices, and then- and only then- we’ll move in.” While the capitalist negotiations are taking place, the animals suffer from heat and hunger at the hands of men whose only care is for the money that can be made from them.
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There is a continuous abuse of animals at the hand of capitalist greedi In fact, when it came to the life of a horse who acted as one of the main acts in the circus, the only concern was not for the horse‘s suffering, but for the profit that could be made if the horse was “fixed”i In fact, the good of the horse was to rest until the end of his days However August’s response was that “stall rest is out of the question,” and this is because the circus would be losing money if the horse was not to perform No matter whether or not the animals in the circus suffered, the only question that matter was whether or not they were generating profits. It came to a point in the book in which we see the difference in perspective between Jacob and August, when it came to animals.
While Jacob worried about the pains and malnourishment of the animals in the circus, August view the animals as things that need no sympathy for they were there to make them money. The people that worked for the circus were not better off than the animals, in fact, many of them were treated worst than the animals themselves, The “Roustabout,” the people who worked in the menagerie were dispensable since in the days of the depression there were many who needed work but not much work left. The Bizini’s Brothers’ circus was able to get away with unchecked capitalism thanks to the circumstances of the Great Depression, Once workers were deemed unnecessary, they were “redlighted”. Redlighted was the termed used to refer to the throwing of people out of the moving train which more than not resulted in deaths Redlighting was so common that it might have been one of the main causes that lead to the collapse of the circus.
Because the greed of the capitalist driven circus’s bosses was so great, the workers went unpaid and hungry many times, and because they were not exotic animals that were hard to find, many of them were fired using death; Once the news spread of the death of a dozen men at the hands of Uncle Al, the revenge of the workers was unstoppable, The end of the Benzini‘s Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Eanh came as a result of the unchecked capitalist tendencies of its owners The maltreatment of the circus’s animals and workers ended with the chaotic stampede of the animals and the liberation of its workers. Justice came with the collapse of the circus Capitalism ended the hierarchy of the circus and thus at the end of the day all were the same; workers, bosses and animals were all freed from the capitalistic greed.
