Water For Elephants: Connection

CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up–for you the flag is flung–for you the bugle trills; 10
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths–for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

– Walt Whitman

This poem shares many similarities to the climax and falling action of the book Water for Elephants, as it represents the clean break of a long journey for Jacob and Marlena. At the end of the book Jacob and Marlena know that they are in danger and must leave the circus soon, to escape from August and Uncle Al, and the potentially fatal fate that awaits them there if they don’t. However, the night they are to make their escape, the animals are all let loose, causing a stampede in the middle of the show. In the chaos that ensues, Rosie the elephant kills August and a few days later Uncle Al is found dead. Since the people in charge of the circus are no longer able to perform their duties, the circus comes to an end as well. The circus collapsing marks the end of a long voyage for Jacob and Marlena, and it severs a clean break for them since they know that now there is no home to return to, even if they wanted to go back. Similarly, the end of the voyage in the poem leaves no other option but to continue forward. The Captain, however, has gone down with the trip, further impeding the possibility of travel, except by a different ship. I feel that this poem relates more to Marlena than Jacob, in refernce to the captain, because Marlena was August’s wife who loved him, at one point. Though they had the rockiest of relationships and she left him before he was dead, there is still an emotional attachment there, and she still mourns her husband even though she has a bright future waiting ahead of her, albeit uncertain. Similarly the sailor in the poem mourns his captain in the face of victory. With no more captain to direct the ship, the voyage ends, marking a new beginning for all aboard.