Water For Elephants part 2

In the book Water For Elephants, like in the world we live in today, there are very distinct differences in social classes. The rich are in their own class and the poor are in their own class too. Every day in the world around us, we are reminded of how the lives of people in different classes don’t look anything like each other. In our city, it would not be unusual to see a woman with a $1000 handbag stepping over a homeless person near her doorway. This is an extreme example of class difference but there are many less obvious ones. The school you go to depends on where you live so if your parents pay more money, you are given better education opportunities. The distance between the classes is widening. The circus train is like a small scale city, it has its leaders ands its workers and they all seem to know their place on the ladder.

The Benzini Bros train illustrates the difference of classes very well. For example, the lower class workers on the train are called roustabouts. Many are often not paid and work only for food and shelter. These roustabouts are the manual laborers. Their jobs consist of taking up and putting down the tents, lifting heavy equipment-basic grunt work. They live in poor conditions; “The odor of unwashed bodies and clothes is overwhelming. The bunks, stacked three high, hold at least one and sometimes two men, as do the spaces beneath them” (55). The author clearly shows the difference in classes because when you compare that setting to what is described later on in the train car that held Uncle Al (the owner of the circus); “I can see burnished wood and intricate light fixtures…” You can tell that this room, which has a waiter to refill the Brandy Snifters, is a completely different living situation than that of the roustabouts. Another example of Sara Gruen showing class difference is the working class character Camel is described as “Staggering, holding a flask in one hand and a roll-your-own in the other” (54), while Uncle Al is described as “Twaddling a fat cigar… a snifter of Brandy rests on the table in front of him.” (56). While Camel is making do with a homemade cigarette and a small bottle of cheap Moonshine, Uncle Al has luxuries like fat cigars and getting refills of expensive liquor (which wasn’t even legal at the time), and they only live a few train cars away from each other; much like our city.

Right now in our city, there are people living like roustabouts trying to make a point about the injustice of class difference. Countless people are sleeping outside in a park on Wall Street to call attention to this issue. Although I understand their cause, I don’t always agree with their tactics. Humans have been living with class differences since the beginning of time, but in our modern, more progressive world, the class gap should not be widening, we should be moving forward together.