While reading this novel, Water for Elephants, I found the similarities between old Jacob at the beginning of the novel and my grandma when she was in the nursing home. In fact, seeing the nursing home through Jacob’s eyes provided a new perspective on what my grandma had experienced. Both Jacob and my grandmother are strong willed people and they are accustomed to taking care of themselves. When moving into a nursing home it seems that both people have trouble adjusting from leading a life of independence to a life of almost complete dependence. This fact alone bothered my grandma quite a bit and resulted in a lack of patience when she had to wait on the nurses to help her. She also became irritated with the way the nurses treated her. It wasn’t as if the nurses treated her badly or without respect, instead the thing that really bothered her was that the nurses did not treat her like an adult equal to them. With the exception of Rosemary, Jacob seems to have this exact same problem. In the nursing home he is treated as if he is no longer able to make any good decisions and in some instances he is treated more like a child than a 90 year old adult.
Another similarity is their experiences with the food. On several occasions my grandmother flat out refused to force down a few bites of the stuff because it was so terrible. The nursing home even put some powder in her water to thicken it up and make sure she wouldn’t choke which only resulted in her refusal to drink it of course. So, having seen the food that nursing homes serve and hearing my own grandmother’s complaints, I completely understand Jacob’s rant about the pock marked jello and the tasteless food. In fact, I don’t blame him for wanting to toss that garbage on the floor, even if he didn’t mean to.
On the other hand, seeing what nurses have to deal with in a nursing home I also understand their perspective. This fact makes me like Rosemary even more because she doesn’t see Jacob as just another patient, she sees him as an intelligent person. I think it really shows her character if she can work at a place as depressing as a nursing home and still maintain her encouraging, personable and up-beat spirit.
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I experienced similar feelings when I read this story. My grandpa spent time in an assisted living facility just before he passed away. My sister and I would visit him every day after school and the majority of our conversations revolved around what he was frustrated about. Of course he felt that he didn’t need to be there and that the whole thing was just ridiculous. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he was dying from lung cancer, and wanted nothing more than to be out of there. One occurrence in particular was very similar to the book. We would ask him if he would like to go to dinner with everyone else and he would always decline. Finally, we asked him why. He simply said that there was a man down there who thought that he knew everything, and that he couldn’t stand to be around him while he ate. When we read the part in Water for Elephants where the main character won’t eat at his normal table for similar reasons, I immediately thought of my grandpa. Another part that was similar to my grandpa’s situation was the way that the main character became such good friends with his nurse. There was only one nurse that my grandpa would put up with, and it was only because she wouldn’t take any of his attitude. She would always bicker with him, and even though he complained about it we all knew that he enjoyed talking with her. Ultimately, reading this book made me think more about the things that my grandpa experienced. It was interesting to see how many of the things were similar, and how many of the things were different.
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