Outside Reading Week 2 - Post A

Vocab: 

1. vehemently (124) : zealous; ardent; impassioned
2. roustabouts (141) : a laborer employed for temporary or unskilled jobs

Figurative Language:

1. "Crack! I turned around just in time to see the top of the tent come crashing down." (136) Crack is an onomatopoeia because its mimicking the sound of the tent breaking and falling down.
2. "I push my porridge aside and open my vanity mirror. I should know better by now, but somehow I still expect to see myself. Instead, I find an Appalachian apple doll, withered and spotty, with dewlaps and bags and long floppy ears." (111) This is a metaphor. Jacob is comparing his old self to an Appalachian doll, without using 'like' or 'as'.
3. "Within minutes the bloody stench and piercing shrieks send me lying back to the goat room to press my nose against the mildewed blanket - anything to replace the smell of death." (145) This passage is using imagery. Jacob is describing the sense of the bad smell so well that you can almost picture what it would be like. 

Quote:

"I frown. This is not part of the normal Jacob/nurse repertoire. 'He may be wrong in the details, but he's not lying.' she says. 'He really believes that he carried water for the elephants. He does.' I don't answer." (176) Here again the title is stated. Jacob is flashing forward to present time where he is an old man at a nursing home. He is refusing to eat with another man because he tells stories about how he carried water for elephants. Jacob freaks out saying that he's lying. Why does Jacob care so much? I think that this is foreshadowing something important that has to do with Jacob and Rosie(the elephant).

Theme:

The theme of greed/looking out for number one is still emerging.