AlexisEgan

I have now finished the book and the ending is very good. After Marlena and Jacob find out they are pregnant, they decide to make a plan for ditching the circus and making a life for themselves. August keeps talking to Marlena, attempting to make her want to come back to him. This makes Jacob very mad, so one night he decides he is going to kill August. So, he steals Walter's knife, the man he shares a train car with, and goes on top of the train and starts making his way toward August's train car. When he gets to it, August is asleep, so Jacob starts thinking of how he is going to kill him. Jacob is too scared to kill him, so he just stabs the knife into the pillow next to August's face, in order to scare him when he wakes up. When Jacob gets back to his train car, he finds out that Camel and Walter are no longer there. He knows immediately that they were red lighted, thrown off the train. This makes him furious. Immediately when he wakes up the next morning he goes to find Uncle Al, but Uncle Al tells him he did not have them red lighted. They find out that August had sent a man to red light Jacob, but couldn't find him, so instead red lighted Camel, Walter, and a few others. A few days later, all the animals get loose during a circus performance. When Jacob sees this, he immediately looks for Marlena. He sees her standing next to Rosie, so he knows she is safe. But then he sees that August is also there. Then, Rosie picks up her ground stake and cracks August in the head with it, immediately killing him. So, they do not have to worry about him anymore. Most of the animals were quickly rounded up. The Cop's ended up shutting down the circus. They called another circus to come get all of their animals and all other circus tools. When they arrive, Jacob sees them standing next to Rosie making a deal. Jacob runs over and tells them that she is his elephant. They let him have her. After that, he looks over at Marlena and can see that she is also convincing them to let her keep the horses from her act, too. They also end up getting one of the monkeys. So, in the end, Jacob and Marlena's family includes them, one elephant, one monkey, eleven horses, one dog, and one baby on the way. 

One day, Marlena planned a surprise party for August. She also invited Jacob. When August walked into the tent, in which they were having the party, Marlena and Jacob were in there alone, with an open champagne bottle. August was infuriated, he just assumed that they were having an affair. August would not let either Marlena or Jacob explain the situation. He began to beat Jacob up. Then, he punched Marlena in the face. Jacob and August both came out with black and blue faces. When Jacob found out that August hit Marlena, he was very mad and wanted to get Marlena out of the relationship. So, he took her to live in a hotel for a few days. When August found out she was gone, he decided to go to every hotel near to look for her. Jacob heard this, so he ran to Marlena's hotel to let her know and get her moved to a different hotel. When he got there, he found out that August had already stopped and asked for her, but the clerk told him she was not there. Jacob ended up staying in the hotel with her and they had an affair. Marlena had decided that she no longer wanted to be with August. Throughout the next chapter, they have a few more affairs. A while later, Jacob found out that Marlena was pregnant with his baby. 

The circus that Jacob is a part of has now taken on an elephant named Rosie. Rosie is a very smart animal. A man was feeding her a bag of Cracker Jack's through her cage, when Rosie got, what looked like a smile on her face. She then took the man's hat off his head, placed it on her head, and posed so he could take a picture. The man they got her from said Rosie is very bad and never does what people want her to do. August tries to get Rosie to do things, but she won't do them, so he hits her with the bull whip. Which she doesn't like, so she just acts up more. During Rosie's first circus show, Marlena was riding her. When it was Rosie's turn to go into the arena, she didn't move, so August whipped her. She proceeded to run very fast into the arena, making Marlena fall off. Then, Rosie wouldn't walk in a circle with the other performers and animals, so August began jabbing her in the side with the bull whip. She eventually had enough of this and sprinted out of the tent. Marlena knew she had to jump off, or she was going to fall off and get hurt. Marlena grabbed onto one of the poles as Rosie ran under it, saving her from getting more hurt than she did. She hurt her feet and won't be able to perform for a few weeks, but she will be okay. After Marlena jumped off Rosie, Rosie went and found someone's garden to destroy and eat all the veggies in it. The women who owned the garden was very angry. Jacob was sent to go get Rosie and bring her back. A few minutes after he got there, a man he did not know showed up. He came to help them get Rosie, he had a bucket filled with gin and ginger ale. He said elephants loved alcohol, but he sent Jacob to get the bull whip just in case. By the time Jacob got the bull whip, the man and Rosie were already almost back to the circus. He would walk a little ways, stop to let Rosie have some alcohol, pull the bucket away, walk a little ways, repeating this until they got back. Rosie followed like a puppy would. Jacob knows Rosie is a very smart, gentle animal, but can't convince August that she is. Jacob treats the animals very well, but they are still treated very badly by some of the other workers and especially August.

The boss of the circus have now decided what Jacob's job is going to be. He is going to be the circus's veterinarian. The boss's wife, Marlena, is a performer. She does an act with one of the horses. The lead horse was sick, so that was the first animal Jacob checked on. It turned out it had a problem with it's hooves, and would most likely not recover. It lived for a few days, but Marlena eventually decided to just let Jacob shoot it. Before that, Marlena's husband, August, decided to have Jacob help him feed the big cats. August asked Jacob to feed one of them by just opening the cage and throwing the food in. When Jacob went to throw the food in, the lion turned around and bit his arm. It really scared Jacob, but it turned out that the lion doesn't even have teeth, even though it did leave a big bruise. August knew that would happen, and was just playing a dirty trick on him. He later felt very bad, so him and Marlena decided to have Jacob over for dinner. They have a very extravagant dinner with many courses. They also had a lot of wine and beer. August and Marlena were dancing to some music later, when August was drunk. All of a sudden, August began being mean. Marlena attempted to pull away, but August grabbed Marlena on the chin. He even left a red mark. Also, Jacob has now moved in a train car with a cranky man named Kinko, and his dog named Queenie. They have stopped at a few more places for circus's and Jacob enjoy's it besides some rude people who are part of the circus. I'm still enjoying this book, although I often feel bad for the animals because they don't get good food and aren't treated very well.

Water for Elephants is a great book. The main character's name is Jacob Jankowsi. It is about a college student who loses him parents in a car wreck. When he lost his parents, he basically lost everything. His dad owned a Veterinary practice. Jacob was in college becoming a vet, so he could go home and work for his dad. But, when his parents died, he quit. He then later found out that bank was going  to take all of his parents belongings. Including his parents house, the things in the house, his dads practice, and many other things. He decides to leave the town because he can't live there anymore. So, one night, he goes to the train tracks, and just starts walking along them. Eventually a train comes by, so he jumps onto it and soon finds out that it was a circus train. They decided they would let him work with them. So far, they have not decided which job he is going to do. They just have him doing random jobs that they need done, such as scooping up horse poop. They have stopped for his first circus, and he seems to like it.