Animal Crackers

From the moment I picked up Sarah Gruen's Water for Elephants, the child in me had been craving one thing; Barnum's animal crackers. My initial obsession with animal crackers started years ago, after attending the circus for the first time with my family, and I have yet to overcome it. I looked for days for animal crackers, scouring the shelves at the grocery store, the Bookie, and finally I found them. Alone of the shelf lay a lonesome box of Barnum's Animals. It is safe to say that for the entire last portion of the book I slowly ate my box of crackers, until I started to feel the similarity between myself and August, as I ate the snack animals in my box and he abused the real animals in the book.

Needless to say, I stopped eating my crackers for a while, but my craving for them has not subsided, and neither has my craving for Water for Elephants.

To be honest, I was devastated when I finished the book because I wanted it to go on and on forever. Frankly, I was even more devastated when we switched to our next book because, to me, it is in no way, shape, or form comparable to Water for Elephants. I miss Jacob, miss the animals, miss the vivid yet also dreary tone of the circus, but most of all, I miss Rosie. I guess for now I will just have to be content with the fake elephant in my little cardboard train car, because The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is doing anything but satisfying my hunger.

A Collection of Everything

JonFen is quite possibly the most obsessive compulsive person I have ever seen. Well, maybe not the MOST, but he is pretty high up on the list.

Since I am a little bit of a pack rat myself, I can relate to JonFen in a sense. I often have a hard time throwing away even the most insignificant items, things that I will never even pull out to look at again. However, JonFen takes it to an all new level. He collects ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he finds. This is not to say that there isn't a deep meaning behind each object, just that it is a little excessive. I completely respect JonFen's quirky nature and obsessive ways, but at times it is rather eerie. The wall of random collected objects, including a set of used dentures, is almost enough to make someone cringe. On the other hand, there is a suggestion of brilliance in JonFen for finding a deeper meaning and relevance in these items.

Some might argue that his obsessive traits are annoying and unnecessary, but I respect his ability to find value in even the most insignificant objects, holding on to every piece of the past, as opposed to those who throw everything away. While it is important to move on with your life, I almost feel sorry for those who draw no emotional connections to items from their past. JonFen may go over the top, but every item he collects, whether be it from his past or that of a member of his family, invokes real emotion. It is depressing that some people go their entire lives throwing away every element of their past.

Without anything to draw back on, life almost seems pointless.