I was horrified by August's brutal treatment of Rosie, but more so by Jacob's failure to prevent his cruelty. When August runs off to smash Rosie with the bull hook, Jacob stares gaping at him. As he later says, "I don't know if the elephant is smart enough to connect me to her punishment and wonder why I didn't do anything ot stop it, but I am and I do" (171). Jacob should be upset with himself. As the show's veterinarian he has to protect the animals and his failure to do so reflects poorly on his character. Do you agree that Jacob's failure to protect the elephant he supposedly "loves" is a failure or was he just not in a position to stop August from acting?
For me, Jacob did redeem himself through his treatment of Camel. Not only did he go to the old man when he was in need, but he went out of his way to help him and his jake leg. He hands over his father's pocket watch to the doctor in order to pay for the examination. This shows how caring a person Jacob is. He sacrifices one of his prized possessions (I'm inferring here, as it's not said but it is his dead father's gift to him) in order to save a man he hardly knows and who he knows has an incurable problem. So what really irked me was the doctor's condescending tone. At one point Jacob notes, "By the time we reach the battered cars of the Flying Squadron, his face is pinched in disgust" (189). Under normal circumstances, the doctor's rudeness would bother me, but because an old man finds out he is temporarily paralyzed and Jacob sacrificed an heirloom for the appointment, his impolite behavior annoys me to the extreme. Do you agree or did you find the doctor's response natural as Camel did bring his paralysis upon himself?
I don't know if you can be so hard on Jacob. Yes, he is the show's vet... but he is also a twenty-something-year-old kid who just dropped out of college a few months ago, where pretty much all of his problems came from his inability to get laid. To try to save Rosie from August would almost definitely meant he would have gotten hurt and he probably would have been kicked off of the circus, which would mean that he would not be able to help any of the other animals. Maybe Jacobs actions were a bit cowardly, but I think we have to give him credit for being a good person, despite the fact that he didn't go after August and spare Rosie a beating.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he's a bad person per se...I just was disappointed because other than his cowardliness, I admired his character. This incident upset me because it tarnished my opinion of him.
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