The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants by Bassmah Bassam Khaled AlTaher, Jordan

International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN: 2308-5460 July-September, 2013 www.eltsjournal.org Humanity has always wanted to find peace, ord

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International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies

ISSN: 2308-5460 July-September, 2013 www.eltsjournal.org

Humanity has always wanted to find peace, order, and justice in a perfect world Yet, this longing manifested in literary works, has been touched by the dark side of reality, transforming Utopia into Dystopia; a world of conflict and chaos Sara Gruen (1969)

captivates this undeniable reality in her novel Water for Elephants (2006) and shows

that the so called ideal society can still have a tragic flaw This study intends to prove

the existence of a Dystopian world in Sara Gruen’s novel Water for Elephants, and how it is shaped within a miniature society of a circus In the life of this circus, the

elements of Dystopia come together to portray the degeneration of society during the Great Depression of (1929 – 1941) in the United States of America; creating a world everyone thought at the very beginning was Utopia Therefore, this study unravels the layers of perfection and shows the flaws of this so called perfect man-made world (the circus) by using the theoretical approach of the term Dystopia and applying it to the novel, one finds that the events that lead to the hero’s abandonment of everything because of the Great Depression in America, ends with the hero’s triumph over shackled circumstances in which he is played as a pawn This feature of ending oppression and fighting for his and his society’s freedom is a major quality of a Dystopian Hero; in contrast, a Utopian Protagonist stands aside, simply being objective in society as he studies the perfect laws and nature of such a perfect world

Keywords: Utopia, Dystopia, Circus, Great Depression, Dystopian Hero

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1 Introduction

The United States of America endured a decade of hardship and adversity during the Great Depression (1929 – 1941) Ten years of prosperity during the 1920s was celebrated by various financial leaders throughout the country, and a lot of those people believed that it was the dawn of a new age in which good profit and money were duplicated easily with flourishing businesses and successful deals Yet this era

of hope did not last long; when the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929,

it shocked many wealthy stockholders with its severe losses This caused a lot of suffering at all levels throughout the nation as the American citizens struggled to cope

in perishable circumstances; many people were out of work, jobs were scarce, and so the “good times of the 1920s were replaced with the bread lines, soup kitchens, and the wandering homeless The administration of President Herbert Hoover took unprecedented actions to relieve the crises, but nothing seemed to work” (Ayers,

creating poverty, unemployment, deflation, and plunging farm incomes The depression as known, started in the United States of America with the fall of stock market prices, and soon after, it affected stock markets globally Thus, the American Dream of gaining wealth and power in a minimum amount of time became the American Nightmare for the residents of the United States of America The hungry nation drifted apart, and it was basically a survival for the fittest Many writers and idealists tried to create an ideal utopia in order to escape the bitter reality and find some peace once again Some even searched for it, claiming that they had the roadmap to heaven, for life forced men, women, and children to dream for a better

Utopia, but in fact, the subtle beginning of a Dystopia Simply because all attempts to perfect those worlds are made of power, manipulation, and injustice (Hermansson, 2011)

A happy land without history where all the citizens are all mentally and morally in tune brings about the failure of Utopia, simply because man by nature is selfish and greedy A counter-point in literature known as Dystopia is thus created, because every man strives for individuality and unique power of his own; this element could be a

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major role in transforming what was known as Utopia, into Dystopia Briefly, Utopia

is defined as a certain society that holds idealistic values in all parts of the way of living; such is legislation, housing, education, and economy As for Dystopia, it is similar to the Utopian world, but differs in the aspect of government and hierarchy as classicism and inequality leads always to its failure (Wells, 2011) With this Dystopian notion, Sara Gruen (1969) takes advantage of this dystopia and manifests it ideology in a microcosmic world of her own known as the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth

The word Dystopia was first used by John Stuart Mill in 1868, an English Philosopher, political economist, and liberal thinker, when Mill denounced the government’s Irish land policy Mill strongly objected on a parliamentary dispute about Ireland in which the conservative government’s proposal to build a Protestant Church, and keep the Catholic one in order to please all sides Thus, Mill (1868) makes his famous statement about this matter:

I may be permitted, as one who, in common with many

of my betters, have been subjected to the charge of being Utopian, to congratulate the Government on having joined that goodly company It is perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather

to be called dys-topians, or cacotopians What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favor is too bad to

be practicable (p.1517) From this meaning, one can allude to how it functions as an ideology applied to a certain community A community that coexists with mankind in utter perfection is basically a dream world, what Mill alludes here is that with the existence of a Catholic Church and a Protestant one, the civil war will never cease Harmony will coexist with the two faiths as proven already in history of the endless battles in England between the Protestants and the Catholics to make a dominant religion in the country

Catholicism ruled England, Ireland, and Scotland for thousands of years, and was basically the main religion throughout Europe “In the 1500s, Catholics began to question the power of the pope, who led the Roman Catholic Church” (Banting, 2002,

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p.8) The question lies whether Ireland is any different? “Between 1534 and 1537, King Henry VIII tried to force Roman Catholics in Ireland to give up their religion and follow Protestantism” (Banting, 2002, p.8) One may allude that life does not function the way people want it to be, for power corrupt, classicism, and mankind’s selfishness would bring about the downfall of an attempt to perfect society

The Canadian-American writer, Sara Gruen (1969), manifests Dystopia in various

aspects of her novel Water for Elephants (2006) The story revolves around the

protagonist, Jacob Jankowski, whose penniless and homeless situation led him to join the circus as a veterinarian His boss, known as August, is violent and everyone fears him with great caution, even his young, beautiful wife Marlena is frightened of his madness at times Jacob soon finds himself attracted, and then falls in love with

Marlena However, when unraveling the novel, many parts reflect the elements that

create a Dystopian world, especially in its settings, characters, and main events The characters and events of the novel go beyond the mere reader’s perspective of a typical love story developing in a magical place of the circus into a visual drama of lively characters and impulsive behavior In order to prove that a Dystopia truly exists

in the world of the novel, the original atmosphere and how the characters react to such

an extraordinary place is analyzed through theoretical basis in detail in this paper

2 Review of the Related Literature

This study is completely original What has been dealt with, whether in the form of books, articles, and the like, is the continuous analysis and explanation of the growing concept of Dystopia in literature In dealing with Dystopia, most critics attempt to define the term and give its historical origin, while explaining its functionality

Michael D Gorden, Helen Tilley, and Gyan Prakash (2010) state that

Dystopia, utopia’s twentieth-century doppelganger, also has difficulty escaping its literary fetters Much like Utopia, dystopia has found fruitful ground to blossom in the copious expanses of science fiction, but it has also flourished in political fiction (and especially in anti-Soviet fiction), as demonstrated by the ease with which the term is applied to George Orwell’s 1984, Evgenii Zamiatin’s We, and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New

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World…Dystopia…is a utopia gone wrong, or a utopia that functions only for a particular segment of society

(p.1)This definition simply defines the term Dystopia and does not tackle its various forms

A Dystopian world can not only be seen in science fiction or political fiction, it can also be seen in a simple community that strives for perfection This small society can

be a normal family or a nation, as long as there is a group of people who need to escape their reality and search for a better place, this new society that they have joined

is their new home in the shape of Dystopia Other critics perceive Dystopia as critical Dystopia Alexander Hall (2009) explains that:

non-existent society described in considerable detail and normally located in time and space that the author intended a contemporaneous reader to view as worse than contemporary society…the critical dystopia, according to Moylan, carries out an intertextual intervention that denies the negation of the critical utopian moment (p.2)

A twenty-first century reader can only imagine a contemporary Dystopia that exists in the far future, yet that is not always true A twenty-first century reader can look back

in time with non use of science fiction and simply look at a simple historical fiction and discover a Dystopian world embedded within Its form may not seem so obvious

at first, but its function and shape is actually a mold of Dystopia in its subtlest way

However, when looking at the novel on its own, many critics wrote positive reviews

on the novel in common perspectives The New York Times’ journalist, Elizabeth

Judd (2011) noted that Water for Elephants’

Circuses showcase human beings at their silliest and most sublime, and many unlikely literary figures have been drawn to their glitzy pageantry, soaring

Unsurprisingly, writers seem liberated by imagining a spectacle where no comparison ever seems inflated, no development impossible For better and for worse,

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Gruen has fallen under the spell With a showman's expert timing, she saves a terrific revelation for the final pages, transforming a glimpse of Americana into an enchanting escapist fairy tale (p.1)

Water for Elephants is not only an escapist novel in which characters escape their

unpleasant life into a better one, but also a novel that fits into the Dystopian genre; a genre in the sense that the atmosphere, characters, and plot make up Dystopia What can be seen by these vivid characters and lively animals in the circus is the fictitious development of a society longing to be perfect through illusion and misconception

Hence, a Dystopian society comes to life In this study, this miniature society is dealt with through analysis of the Dystopian Hero, Jacob Jankowski, and through the conflict between social classes of the novel; the performers and the workers The novel’s ending proves even further this hypothesis of relating the circus to Dystopia, for every imperfect and unbalanced society lays its downfall The outbreak of the revolution at the end of the story, and how it brought about the downfall of the circus proves the very existence of Dystopia

The Great Depression (1929 – 1941) caused a lot of suffering throughout America in the aftermath of the Crash of the stock market in 1929 Even though the American administration tried to relieve the crises, there was widespread agony across the land, turning the American dream into an American nightmare As a consequence of this, many writers wrote about it as a fall from Utopia Thus, fiction witnessed the advent

of a new genre known as Dystopia

The idea of Utopia first became known in English Literature through Sir Thomas

More’s Utopia (1516), a fictional novel that deals with political issues, where he is

able to draw a perfect world with an ideal community The name Utopia “is a compound Greek word meaning literally ‘no place’ or ‘nowhere,’” (More, 1999, p.15)

mean ‘good place’, can imply a whole different meaning to a godforsaken place A person who first hears of utopia will get the impression that it is an unattainable state because it is no where to be found, but when that person understands the English meaning of it which means a good place, then that person would assume it is possible

in existence With this ambiguous terminology, More adapts many literary and

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philosophical ideas from various sources to create perfection on an island in the Atlantic ocean The political hierarchy of More’s novel is then based on recognized merit and effort; the people of Utopia, the Syphogrants and Tranibores are “elected annually, and the princes, or ‘first leaders,’ chosen from among those who are thought

‘most meet and expedient,’ serve for life unless ‘put down for suspicion of tyranny’”

(More, 1999, p.5) Debate on public affairs, like the issue of crime and punishment, prevails among the Utopians in order to conduct their public issues by using democratic forms The protagonist, Raphael, tries to learn Utopia’s laws, behavior, and manners in the story, an outsider visiting Utopia This hero sits quietly, listening and observing the Utopian life and dares not alter anything because of its perfection

Hence, there is no ownership of a certain land or property, doors are unlocked, and everyone works in taking care of the land planting crops Equality dominates the island of 54 cities This is relevant in terms of identifying Utopia’s counterpart, Dystopia, and so it would become easier to distinguish between the both when the Dystopian circus is introduced

However, the idea of Utopia seemed too perfect to be true Power or the need of power can always corrupt a man; moreover, as a human being, man is limited in various ways in which help should be provided, and of course when one lacks practicality, then a ruler would face higher risks by losing moral judgment Man can try to idealize his world, but in the end, it would fall apart The old Utopias ignored that “reproductive competition among individualities which is the substance of life, and dealt essentially with its incidentals” (Wells, 1908, p.82) A happy land without history where all the citizens are all mentally and morally in tune, yet this so called harmony never seems to last, and inevitably bring about the failure of Utopia This created a counter-point in literature known as Dystopia As human beings, every man strives for individuality and unique power; this generates greed and selfishness, and as

a result Utopia is transformed into Dystopia

The word Dystopia is originally a Greek word meaning ‘bad or ill;’ (Gottlieb, 2001, p.5) from this meaning, one can allude to how it functions as an ideology applied to a certain community Dystopia is usually associated with science fiction; a future of advanced technology brings about the fall of man kind For example, the famous

Hollywood movie In Time is set in the far future where time is of the essence; people

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have timers on their arms to count how much time they have left; once it hits zero, the person dies suddenly However, in order to comprehend the actual sense of this ideology, various aspects should be explained First of all, “for a thematically more neutral definition of this ‘bad place,’…dystopia [is looked] as a social structure that is worse than the present social system” (Gottlieb, 2001, p.5) Dystopia’s rules force oppression over a society Moreover, it portrays a repressive society that fears change, technology, or the unexplainable This society always tends to fear its great fall, hence individuality is a given right to the ones in power, like the government, and alienation

is bound to its people According to Niclass Hermansson (2011), the irony of its pretentious democratic ways is found in the character of an accomplished and a competent person who is suppressed or stigmatized, considering him to be above others; intellectuals, scholars, and scientists are thus considered to be a threat In addition, the dystopian world finds itself isolated from nature; the people are alienated from all that is green, making a person confide to darkness and indoor life in most of

his or her life However, some Dystopian societies are founded in the natural world

The main focus is going to be on the Dystopian Hero and how the atmosphere helped transform the weak, scared child, into a strong fighter

Generally, the background of the story that depicts a Dystopian world takes place after a crisis; for example, war, famine, or revolution in order to create a new government delegated by the charismatic people of the remaining society Usually the people in power are shallow and follow their own pleasures “Some are even brutal and cruel Unlike utopia where the rulers are just and caring for the well-being and comfort of their citizens, the Dystopian rulers are oppressors and dictators, using

this corruption, there is black marketing and bad goods are sold This often creates a revolt from a group of oppressed people that spreads through the whole community and brings down the corrupted government Mainly, the revolt begins with the protagonist, a Dystopian character who has lived the unjust cruelty for years, and can

no longer stand the injustice inflicted upon lower class people “Conflict is basically the main issue in bringing about the first steps of change [towards a positive change];

the protagonist usually trusts a group of people whom withhold powerful positions in

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Thus, Dystopian literature attains a climax of revolution at all times, aspiring tragedy

However, the ending always takes the Dystopian Hero’s favor and a new life is produced before the hero Whether this new life is good or bad one, it is something else than the life the hero had, usually, an indication at the end shows that the hero, who is finally freed from all authoritative constraints, is happy for being finally able

to create decisions of one’s own Destroying Dystopia could either be possible or impossible, in some novels and short stories, and even science fiction, the Dystopian world is usually shaken up by the rise of the people and sometimes, they lose their case when opposing the powerful and corrupted rulers The escape of the protagonist

is also a sign of triumph; in a sense this person is able to run away from an oppressive life and finally live a normal life with a rather balanced power and rights division As

a result, Dystopia is but a mortal trial to establish an immortal state that rulers think is the best for their people, but the means in which they conduct their state is unjust and wrong, and so Dystopia must be destroyed at the end

3 Research Methodology

This study is analytical in the sense of analyzing events and characters to elaborate how the Dystopian world came to be In short character development analysis and plot analysis are used throughout the whole process Moreover, the study is theoretical by applying the attributes of Dystopia as a genre The historical background of the Great Depression is used in order to portray the becoming of Dystopia in the circus during the mid 1930s Sarah Gruen (1969) uses The Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth as her refuge for her main hero, Jacob Jankawski, and whom the paper refers to as the Dystopian Hero Moreover, attributes of the genre, Dystopia, like the use of an actual historical calamity to push people to create a Dystopian society, the idea of having a tragic hero who revolts against a tyrant, are applied to the novel in order to show how the Benzini Brothers’ Circus is a miniature society of a corrupted hierarchy, disguised as a sanctuary for all those who are lost in the Depression By doing so, the study adds to the definition of Dystopia that it does not have to be set in the far future in the world of science fiction, but it can actually exist in a historical fiction, and take the same shape as it would in a world full of robots or aliens

4 The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants

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Water for Elephants is set in two realms, a nursing home in the present times, and a

circus in the past In order to justify how Dystopia came to being, a real life crisis

should be presented in the background In the case of Water for Elephants, the crisis

is related to the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States of America It is formally known that the Great Depression expanded throughout the world Among those countries was Poland, from which our main hero of the novel, Jacob Jankowski, comes from At the beginning of the novel, Jankowski is seen as an old man who is confused whether if he is ninety or ninety-three-years old, and would reminisce about the circus He remembers the 1930s in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University, where

he is in his final semester studying to be a Veterinarian Gruen subtly projects the background information of her novel in the first chapter, hinting the origin of the Jankowski family Zbigniew Landau and Jerzy Tomaszewski state that the “Great Depression brought a sudden fall in marriage-and birth-rates, the result of common pauperisation and anxiety about setting up a family or having more children”

(Landau, 1985, p.86) made various couples decide to bear only a child or two This reflected in the Jankowskies having an only child, Jacob The Great Depression in Poland also explains why so many Poles immigrated to America and to other countries before the Depression, and why the number of immigrants decreased after it

Many even returned to Poland because they had lost their jobs or couldn’t find any

“A characteristic feature of economic depression was that migratory movements diminished, especially those of people seeking work abroad…Between 1930 and 1935 emigration from Poland totalled [sic] 448,000 people, whereas in the previous six years more than 900,000 Poles had emigrated.” (Landau, 1985, p.86) Gruen uses this information and chooses to place the Jankowskies’ veterinarian business in Ithaca to bankruptcy, and in order for Jacob’s father to pay off Jacob’s tuition fees at Cornell University, he had to mortgage the house The Depression caused more misery for the Jankowskies, as it forced many people to pay for veterinarian services with other things than cash This is all revealed to Jankowski, a young man in his twenties, when

he is summoned to the offices of Edmund Hyde, Esquire:

Apparently my father has been taking payment in the form of beans and eggs for nearly two years…

Tiêu đề	The Importance of a Dystopian Hero in Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants
Tác giả	Bassmah Bassam Khaled AlTaher
Trường học	German-Jordanian University
Chuyên ngành	English Language & Translation Studies
Thể loại	essay
Năm xuất bản	2013
Thành phố	Amman

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