Ecological Study Of Water For Elephants

Water for Elephants is the masterpiece of Sara Gruen, who is a famous contemporary American writer. According to Sara Gruen, the backbone of her story parallels the biblical story of Jacob in the Book of Genesis. The major themes explored in this novel include circus life during the Depression (Gruen did extensive research on the subject), the testing of man’s moral compass, self worth, mental illnesses, acting on emotions, illusion vs. reality, and love triangles.Sara Gruen allegorically and vividly depicts the cruel maltreatment of animals by Uncle Al and August and their tragically being killed by the animals in the stampede. They take the development of the circus and the pursuit of profits as their only purpose. Uncle Al spends everything in buying an elephant and its sleeping car, which makes the workers have no room to live in. When no profits are made, he even throws the workers off the moving train to avoid paying salaries. August, the head trainer, is rather cruel to animals. Animals contribute to the great show, but he doesn’t show appreciation to them. Instead, he takes them just as tools. When they don’t follow his instructions, he will abuse them in a fatal way. The cranky behaviors lead Uncle Al and August to be in complete defiance of nature. And gradually they are also isolated from the society. Due to the infinite expansion of desire, they develop serious spiritual crisis. Finally, the circus is taken down and they lose their lives.This thesis intends to explore Water for Elephants on the basis of ecological study. Ecology is an interdisciplinary field which studies life and environment, human and nature, society and earth, spirit and material. Exploring and criticizing ecological ideology reflected in classical works is an important task of ecological study. This thesis attempts to study the man-nature relationship, disharmony in social development and spiritual crisis from the angle of ecological view. Through the analysis of the relationship between man and nature, the first part reveals Sara Gruen’s natural ecological attitude about how man and nature can co-exist in harmony. Through the discussion of inequality, materialistic ideas and isolation among social members, the second part exposes the disharmony of social ecology in capitalist society. Through the exploration of the characters’spiritual world, the third part uncovers the spiritual crisis caused by infinite pursuit of material richness.The primary significance of the thesis lies in the fact that it is the first eco-critical study of the three relationships revealed in Water for Elephants, namely, nature-human, human-human and human-spirit. And these three relationships influence each other. Not only the consequences of human beings’inappropriate doings to nature will be analyzed, the impact on human society and humans themselves will also be explored.