We sit in silence, watching team after team haul equipment, animals, and canvas back to the train. Performers leaving the back end of the big top disappear into dressing tents and emerge into street clothes. They stand in groups, laughing and talking, some still wiping their faces. Even out of costume they are glamorous. The drab workmen scuttle all around, occupying the same universe but seemingly on a different dimension. There is no interaction.
There is an evident distinction between classes in Sara Gruen's popular novel, Water for Elephants. An older man (one who can't remember if he is 90 or 93) , Jacob Jankowski, tells his story of his early years working for the Benzini Brothers Circus during the Great Depression. At the age of 23, while attending veterinarian school, Jacob's parents were killed in a terrible car accident. He meets with a man, Edmund Hyde, to discuss his parents' estate. He finds out that his father, a veterinarian, was taking payments in "beans and eggs" because he couldn't stand by and watch animals suffer. Jacob's parents fell behind on their mortgage because they were paying for Jacob's Ivy League education.
I stare at Edmund Hyde, in his expensive suit, behind his expensive desk, in front of his leather-bound books. Behind him, the sun streaks through lead-paned windows. I am filled with sudden loathing- I'll bet he's never taken payment in the form of beans and eggs in his life.
At this moment, Jacob becomes aware that he is left with nothing and watching someone, obviously, of wealth drives him over the edge. He can't take it so he runs away. He jumps a train, and since it is late at night, he doesn't see that the side of the train reads: "Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth".
Jacob is thrown into a new world. A world of working. The men on the train take him in and put him to work! There is a large seperation between the people who work for the circus and the people who perform in the circus. The circus performers are called "kinkers" and they get special treatment. This different treatment is evident in the eating quarters. The kinkers sit at beautiful tables with flowers and nice silverware, while the workers sit seperate from them at plain tables.
Jacob is bunked with a dwarf performer, Kinko.
I step forward, holding out my hand. "How do you do," I say.
Kinko regards my hand coolly and then looks back at August. "What is he?"
"His name is Jacob."
"I said what, not who."
"He's going to help out in the menagerie."
Kinko leaps to his feet. "A menagerie man? Forget it. I'm a performer. There's no way I'm bunking with a working man."
Because Kinko has a pet dog, and isn't supposed to, August (equestrian director and superintendent of animals) requires Kinko to bunk with Jacob or else he can't keep his dog. The two, Jacob and Kinko, end up being good friends.
August is considered to be of upper class in this novel. He has a hot temper and is violent, which frightens the workers. Later in the novel we come to find he suffers from Schizophrenia. August's wife, Marlena, is also a member of this upper class. She is a star performer in the circus. Although she is a member of the upper class, she treats everyone the same. She was once scolded by the manager of the circus, Uncle Al, for giving someone of lower class food. He compares them to animals, as if you give them something one time and they will just keep coming back for more.
Uncle Al (Alan Bunkel), like August, is a member of the upper class. Both he and August exploit the lower working class. Uncle Al is the owner and ringmaster of the circus. Uncle Al is a buzzard, a vulture, an eater of carrion. When shows did not succeed, he was there to "sop them up". In 1928, The Benzini Brothers Circus ran out of money and couldn't make it to the next town. The general manager left everything behind-- people, equipment animals. Uncle Al was in the area and swooped up the opportunity and made the circus his own, keeping the original name. He is a man of business-- a man with his focus on the dollar. He treats the workers poorly and even throws them from the train in the middle of the night so he won't have to pay them for their work.
The performers, that worked under Uncle Al and August, were also of upper class. The performers saw themselves as a higher class, with their noses in the air to the workers. When money became tight in the circus, the performers received their pay while workingmen would not.
An important part of any circus are the animals. The animals are viewed, even though not human, as members of the lower class in this novel. Although the animals are part of the lower class, they are viewed as being of higherer (lower) class than the actual workers. This is apparent when Uncle Al brings an elephant on-board because he knows it will bring larger audiences. Having an expensive animal like this takes away from the pay of the workers. Even though the animals are a little bit higher on the lower class spectrum than the workers, they still aren't treated well. The animals were abused, mostly by August. Marlena had a horse that was sick and they knew that there was no chance of recovery so they shot the horse and fed its body to the cats.
The workers were treated the worst. It is obvious, from the examples I have already presented, that the workers were not treated in a humane way. There was segregation between the workers and pretty much everyone and everything else. They were stuffed in train cars, sit on the opposit side from the performers, and treated as though they had no value.
The place Jacob is at, when telling the story, is a 90 something year old man living in a nursing home. He is put there by his children, who would rather him live in the nursing home than with any of them. From what we see him struggling with in his older age, is the modern way we view and treat the elderly. He is forced to take pills and "become a sheep" by the doctors even though he feels like he doesn't need it. He has little say so on what he does and has lost his freedom as an adult. He is treated similar to a member of the lower class. One who is not appreciated and forgotten by the rest of society.
Jacob goes into great detail about his experiences in the circus. He paints a dark image of the circus, rather than the magical beauty that most people hold in their head. We are able to identify the classes in this novel. Today, class levels have become more complicated. They still exist but aren't so black and white. We have upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class (working class), lower class. Many people are unaware of what class they fall under-- most of us don't want to consider ourselves one of a working class, but unfortunately, most of us are.
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