Water for Elephants Discussion

questions ganked from here

1. Water for Elephants moves between a story about a circus and a story about an old man in a nursing home. How do the chapters about the older Jacob enrich the story about Jacob’s adventure with the circus? How would the novel be different if Gruen had only written about the younger Jacob, keeping the story linear and never describing Jacob’s life as an old man?

2. Did the chapters about the nursing home change how you think about older people? In what ways are the doctors and nurses condescending? How is Rosemary different? How do you treat older people?


3. In chapter two, the twenty-three year old Jacob starts his story by telling us he is a virgin. From the cooch tent to the erections the older Jacob gets when being bathed, sexuality is woven into the whole story. Why do you think Gruen added these details? What role does sexuality play in Water for Elephants?

4.When you first read the Prologue, who did you think murdered the man? Were you surprised by who the actual murderer was?

5. In what ways is Water for Elephants a survival story? A love story? An adventure?

Here is a link to an interview with the author Sara Gruen

Who read it? Who started it? Who never cracked the cover?

(I never cracked the cover, I did carry it in my bag with me for half the month.. haha whoops)