Gruen's Message

Taken from Google Images

 

It seems as if most of you really enjoyed reading Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, which makes me soooo happy!  The time has come to analyze the work as a whole and determine what you took from it; what message did Gruen send to you?  If this story has a moral or a lesson, what is it?  What about the novel was particularly enjoyable for you as a reader?  Explain.

Crazy August

Taken from Google Images

There is a certifiably crazy character in Water for Elephants - August. For this journal entry, psychoanalyze August as a psychiatrist might analyze a patient. What makes him tick? Why does he act the way that he does? What is wrong with this guy? After you psychoanalyze and diagnose August, be sure that you prescribe him something that will even him out - he needs it.

W4E Journal Prompt

Marlena and her ponies.
Taken from Google Images

 

Since Sara Gruen's novel Water for Elephants is written in first person from Jacob's perspective, as readers we are constantly "inside" of his head.  But for this journal prompt I want you to think about what it would be like inside the head of a more minor character like Kinko, August, Camel, or Marlena.  What are each of these characters going through in the novel right now, and what would they have to say about it in a diary entry?  Ready...set...WRITE - character-diary-entry-style!

The Circus

Taken from Google Images

 



Write about a time in which you wanted to run away and join the circus (aka - a time in which you felt hopeless, angry, or needed a change).  Use your genre sheet!